Abstract: “The Yellow River comes from heaven, rushes into the sea and never comes back.” I remember there was a book with pale yellow cover called The Yellow River Comes From Heaven which gave me an impressive shock. Mr. Chen Yufeng brought us tens of landscape paintings including The Yellow River Comes From Heaven, Impression On Penghu…
Chen Yufeng in an interview with Zhang Xiong Art on the opening ceremony
Cheng Yufeng giving a speech
Zhang Xiong Art correspondence (Article/Hu Ying) “The Yellow River comes from heaven, rushes into the sea and never comes back.” I remember there was a book with pale yellow cover called The Yellow River Comes From Heaven which gave me an impressive shock. On Contemporary Famous Artist Xu Li, Chen Yufeng and Wang Laiwen Joint Exhibition, Mr. Chen Yufeng brought us tens of landscape paintings including The Yellow River Comes From Heaven, Impression On Penghu and Great Wall. The paintings feel magnificent and vigorous. The inscriptions in his paintings are mostly in Xiao Kai (regular script in small characters) which look neat, smooth and beautiful. From his Xiao Kai inscriptions we can see his profound skill in Tang-style regular script which is rare in the art circle.
Chen Yufeng’s work
Most works on this exhibition are Chen Yufeng’s new paintings which were created this year. Some are depictions of Wuyi Mount or Fuzhou Tower. There are also a small number of old works that were created tens of years ago. The magnificent mountains and rivers under his brush are of both fine brushwork style and free style. He applies the techniques of calligraphy in the his paintings. His brushwork is sophisticated and vigorous. He absorbs the vigorousness of North School and the elegance of South School, and studies from the paintings from ancient Song and Yuan dynasties to modern times; he also integrates modern thoughts into his painting. To transfer from Western painting to traditional Chinese painting, he has kept practicing from basic skills and deeply studying the ideologies and cultural sources of the two different paintings. He has made more efforts than ordinary people and finally breaks through the conventions and forms his own style of contemporary painting of distinctive Chinese flavor. His painting style is magnificent, combining reality and imaginary and integrating feelings of life into the painting.
Chen Yufeng’s works
Apart from mountain-and-river painting, Chen Yufeng also brought us his maiden paintings. The beauty of Chinese females lies in being virtuous and restrained. In his maiden paintings, he presents the figures’ emotions through their facial expressions, hand gestures, costumes , etc.. Although he adopts traditional painting form, the maidens under his brush are more of restrained and elegant quality and strong literati flavor, quite different from the luxurious and graceful maiden paintings in Tang dynasty.
In his mountain-and-river paintings like Blossoming Mountain In Spring and Red Leaves In Autumn, the visitors call also see fascinating landscapes. In the past, Fujian artists learned mountain-and-river painting from Jiangsu and Zhejiang artists who have been rather matured in pure ink painting. Now Fujian artists also have to develop their own style. On this regard, Chen Yufeng integrates the light and shade as well as colors of Western painting into his works.
Talking of 12th National Art Exhibition, Chen Yufeng said he was too busy to attend it and it was more of a stage for young artists now. In his early years Chen Yufeng has been travelling around the world. Now in his 70s, the simple, optimistic and generous old artist prefers a more relaxing and free creation state.