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Lot Essay
"Anyone who has seen the herdsmen of the Kham region will know they have seen some real men. Their eyes are piercing, their foreheads thick, their coiled braids and their accoutrements swaying as they walk. They have a commanding presence that is quite enviable, walking with a heavy tread, steady and brave. Everything about them is perfect for painting, and I've found a very direct language for that: All they have to do is stand there, and I've got a painting." Chen Danqing
The monumental works of Chen Danqing’s Tibet series embody the historical memory of both the artist and the world of Chinese art. From 1978 to 1980, Chen created a series comprising seven paintings, based on aspects of daily Tibetan life. The subjects he chose were no longer the model citizens seen in paintings from the Cultural Revolution era; instead, employing the techniques of Western classicism, Chen portrayed the Tibetan people and their tenacious vitality. Humanity and emotion were his ultimate goals as he shifted art’s focus from the worship of national symbols to a concern for ordinary society and its human ecology. Chen’s return to self-recognition and introspection helped break down the socialist realism that was previously the only acceptable style, and the introduction of more modern painting vocabularies and concepts signaled the arrival of a new era in Chinese art history. The phenomenal success of Chen’s Tibet series loomed large in the cultural landscape of the 1980s, sparking great interest in Tibetan subjects and influencing many subsequent Chinese artists, who became fascinated with the region and made pilgrimages to see it.
In 1982, Chen resigned from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and moved to the United States to begin a career as a professional artist. Chen, who first arrived in the United States, not only had to adapt to various environmental changes, but also had to live as a professional artist. The artist soon found a gallery that agreed to represent him. Chen first signed a five year collaboration with Wally Findlay Galleries in New York. However, the gallery closed two years later, so Chen signed a contract with the Grand Central Art Galleries in 1985 until 1987. Given the large number of sketches and early paintings Chen still retained from his time in Tibet, and the interest of the gallery representing him in New York, he continued to produce his Tibet series of paintings there. In 1983, Chen completed the Tibetan Cowboys offered here, based on the same composition as an earlier version from 1980. This 1983 work, painted with oil on canvas, is the larger of the two, and while they are similar in composition and the modeling of their figures, they differ greatly in their tonal palettes and their mood.
The Kham region is located in eastern Tibet. Long considered a place of great mystery, countless myths and legends are associated with it. Its extraordinary geographical location places it among the great peaks and rivers of the Hengduan Mountains, bordering on Sichuan and Yunnan. In strategic terms it was often said that “peace in Kham precedes stability in Tibet.” The Khampa people are known for being handsome and sturdy, quick both to love and to hate. Khampa men usually carry items such as knives at their waists and talisman holders, while wearing their hair in “hero braids,” bound with black or red silk threads, to signal masculine strength and bravery. Tibetan Cowboys is the only painting in Chen’s Tibet Series to portray a group of five men; unlike others that portray romantic love or close families, this painting finds an earthy heroic mentality in the bonds of loyalty between brothers, fathers and sons, and friends. Chen once said, “Anyone who has seen the herdsmen of the Kham region will know they have seen some real men. Their eyes are piercing, their foreheads thick, their coiled braids and their accoutrements swaying as they walk. They have a commanding presence that is quite enviable, walking with a heavy tread, steady and brave. Everything about them is great for painting, and I’ve found a very direct language for that: All they have to do is stand there, and I’ve got a painting.”
Arriving in the United States in 1982, Chen found himself in a completely different world, prosperous and noisy, a multicultural arena of conflict and integration … and he was still adapting to the US when he painted this second Tibetan Cowboys in 1983. In this new and unfamiliar environment, he reviewed his earlier Tibet series paintings. Because of his living conditions at the time, and the confusing context in which he found himself, this work is charged with an extra depth of personal memory and longing. The painting’s palette leans toward the soft and warm, with a gentler rendering of the scars and imprints that their rough life has left on his subjects’ faces. The mood is also more restrained and reserved, and in Tibetan Cowboys, the viewer can also sense a tenderness within the steely character of these men.
Jean-Francois Millet once said, “The true meaning that gives power to art comes from looking at the most ordinary things with a lofty vision.” Chen Danqing’s Tibetan Cowboys shows the artist evoking human nature and feelings, and his pursuit of the fundamental goodness, truth, and beauty of human nature represents an enduring direction in art.
The monumental works of Chen Danqing’s Tibet series embody the historical memory of both the artist and the world of Chinese art. From 1978 to 1980, Chen created a series comprising seven paintings, based on aspects of daily Tibetan life. The subjects he chose were no longer the model citizens seen in paintings from the Cultural Revolution era; instead, employing the techniques of Western classicism, Chen portrayed the Tibetan people and their tenacious vitality. Humanity and emotion were his ultimate goals as he shifted art’s focus from the worship of national symbols to a concern for ordinary society and its human ecology. Chen’s return to self-recognition and introspection helped break down the socialist realism that was previously the only acceptable style, and the introduction of more modern painting vocabularies and concepts signaled the arrival of a new era in Chinese art history. The phenomenal success of Chen’s Tibet series loomed large in the cultural landscape of the 1980s, sparking great interest in Tibetan subjects and influencing many subsequent Chinese artists, who became fascinated with the region and made pilgrimages to see it.
In 1982, Chen resigned from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and moved to the United States to begin a career as a professional artist. Chen, who first arrived in the United States, not only had to adapt to various environmental changes, but also had to live as a professional artist. The artist soon found a gallery that agreed to represent him. Chen first signed a five year collaboration with Wally Findlay Galleries in New York. However, the gallery closed two years later, so Chen signed a contract with the Grand Central Art Galleries in 1985 until 1987. Given the large number of sketches and early paintings Chen still retained from his time in Tibet, and the interest of the gallery representing him in New York, he continued to produce his Tibet series of paintings there. In 1983, Chen completed the Tibetan Cowboys offered here, based on the same composition as an earlier version from 1980. This 1983 work, painted with oil on canvas, is the larger of the two, and while they are similar in composition and the modeling of their figures, they differ greatly in their tonal palettes and their mood.
The Kham region is located in eastern Tibet. Long considered a place of great mystery, countless myths and legends are associated with it. Its extraordinary geographical location places it among the great peaks and rivers of the Hengduan Mountains, bordering on Sichuan and Yunnan. In strategic terms it was often said that “peace in Kham precedes stability in Tibet.” The Khampa people are known for being handsome and sturdy, quick both to love and to hate. Khampa men usually carry items such as knives at their waists and talisman holders, while wearing their hair in “hero braids,” bound with black or red silk threads, to signal masculine strength and bravery. Tibetan Cowboys is the only painting in Chen’s Tibet Series to portray a group of five men; unlike others that portray romantic love or close families, this painting finds an earthy heroic mentality in the bonds of loyalty between brothers, fathers and sons, and friends. Chen once said, “Anyone who has seen the herdsmen of the Kham region will know they have seen some real men. Their eyes are piercing, their foreheads thick, their coiled braids and their accoutrements swaying as they walk. They have a commanding presence that is quite enviable, walking with a heavy tread, steady and brave. Everything about them is great for painting, and I’ve found a very direct language for that: All they have to do is stand there, and I’ve got a painting.”
Arriving in the United States in 1982, Chen found himself in a completely different world, prosperous and noisy, a multicultural arena of conflict and integration … and he was still adapting to the US when he painted this second Tibetan Cowboys in 1983. In this new and unfamiliar environment, he reviewed his earlier Tibet series paintings. Because of his living conditions at the time, and the confusing context in which he found himself, this work is charged with an extra depth of personal memory and longing. The painting’s palette leans toward the soft and warm, with a gentler rendering of the scars and imprints that their rough life has left on his subjects’ faces. The mood is also more restrained and reserved, and in Tibetan Cowboys, the viewer can also sense a tenderness within the steely character of these men.
Jean-Francois Millet once said, “The true meaning that gives power to art comes from looking at the most ordinary things with a lofty vision.” Chen Danqing’s Tibetan Cowboys shows the artist evoking human nature and feelings, and his pursuit of the fundamental goodness, truth, and beauty of human nature represents an enduring direction in art.