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拍品专文
Intimate and quiet in both composition and atmosphere, Xinyi Cheng’s Darling is a simple snapshot in time, charged with an unexpected wash of blushing hues. The sitter, with long dark hair tightly coiled in a bun impastoed with thick brushstrokes, looks away with his face resting gently in his hand. His robe rests slightly open, revealing a smooth chest with a small tuft of thin, swirling hair, a deliberate detail rendered by the artist to give sensuality to a flatly painted body. A used ashtray peers out from the outskirts of the picture frame, a clue hinting at the gentle passing of time. In Darling, as with many of Cheng’s paintings, the artist depicts a bearded man with technicolor skin in a non-descript environment. When asked of this repeated choice of subject matter, Cheng stated, “’I’m interested in how men deal with their masculinity and how they respond to other people’s feelings…yes, macho beards and poses come up a lot. But I want to have a silly twist to it…when I pass by barber shops, the guys look like macho boys, but they really take care of their beard and hair and are really carefully groomed, which is the opposite of a certain kind of masculinity. I can’t really define what that is but it is a very sensual moment to paint’” (D. Ballantyne-Way, “Xinyi Cheng: ‘I paint masculinity with a silly twist,’” Exberliner, June 3, 2021, https://www.exberliner.com/whats-on/art/xinyi-cheng-interview/).
“...whereas male nude portraiture is often supplemented by depictions of heroism, virility, and power, Cheng’s male subjects emanate feelings of self-reflection, intimacy, and benevolence.”
Cheng places men at the center of her work, acutely aware that men, particularly nude or partially-clothed, are an unconventional subject matter in the modern art historical canon, especially viewed from the eyes of the opposite sex. And whereas male nude portraiture is often supplemented by depictions of heroism, virility, and power, Cheng’s male subjects emanate feelings of self-reflection, intimacy, and benevolence. Sven Beckstette, curator at the National Gallery in the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, notes, “…the men in Cheng’s pictures look contemplative…Cheng draws her males neither as muscular heroes nor as objects of female desire. Nor does she tend to create an erotic or homoerotic atmosphere…through the two-dimensionality of figure and ground and through the artificiality of the choice of colors, the people in her pictures become abstracts that the subjects are not so much signifiers or carriers of meaning rather than, primarily, carriers of color” (S. Beckstette, “Carriers of Color,” Xinyi Cheng: The Horse With Eye Blinders, Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, p. 19).
Cheng paints her memories and imagination, illustrating the people that fascinate her while depicting various aspects of human relationships. The artist works from photos of her friends, taken strictly on an iPhone, often intentionally “bad,” so she does not find herself relying on the phone photo as the true source imagery but as the starting point of a portrait that slowly takes steps away from reality with each preparatory drawing and composition. Cheng places her protagonists into a monochromatic environment, keeping the background vague so the subject matter stands out against the surface. The artist selects artificial colors for both subject and surroundings—in Darling, the man’s skin is pink and, surrounding him, a lavender room. Of her artistic process, Cheng notes that she spends ample time thinking about and working on the color palette of each painting. She is particularly drawn to artists with specific and direct use of color: Josef Albers’ series Homage to the Square, Mark Rothko’s color fields, and Ad Reinhardt’s geometric layers. Cheng is drawn to these artists’ ability to create both emotion and space, despite their compositions’ simple forms. Similarly, while Darling is truly representational, Cheng creates an existential, atmospheric portrait out of a simple composition and varying shades of a handful of colors.
“…through the two-dimensionality of figure and ground and through the artificiality of the choice of colors, the people in her pictures become abstracts that the subjects are not so much signifiers or carriers of meaning rather than, primarily, carriers of color.”Sven Beckstett
Xinyi Cheng received her Bachelor of Arts from the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, in Beijing, China, and her Master of Fine Arts from Mount Royal School of Art, Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore. Cheng has completed residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Wassaic Artist Residency, New York; Keyholder Residency Program, New York; The Bronx Museum of Arts AIM Program, New York; and The Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. In 2019, she was the recipient of the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel. In 2020, she had her first solo exhibition at a major museum, Hamburger Bahnhof. Cheng currently lives and works in Paris, France.
“...whereas male nude portraiture is often supplemented by depictions of heroism, virility, and power, Cheng’s male subjects emanate feelings of self-reflection, intimacy, and benevolence.”
Cheng places men at the center of her work, acutely aware that men, particularly nude or partially-clothed, are an unconventional subject matter in the modern art historical canon, especially viewed from the eyes of the opposite sex. And whereas male nude portraiture is often supplemented by depictions of heroism, virility, and power, Cheng’s male subjects emanate feelings of self-reflection, intimacy, and benevolence. Sven Beckstette, curator at the National Gallery in the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, notes, “…the men in Cheng’s pictures look contemplative…Cheng draws her males neither as muscular heroes nor as objects of female desire. Nor does she tend to create an erotic or homoerotic atmosphere…through the two-dimensionality of figure and ground and through the artificiality of the choice of colors, the people in her pictures become abstracts that the subjects are not so much signifiers or carriers of meaning rather than, primarily, carriers of color” (S. Beckstette, “Carriers of Color,” Xinyi Cheng: The Horse With Eye Blinders, Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, p. 19).
Cheng paints her memories and imagination, illustrating the people that fascinate her while depicting various aspects of human relationships. The artist works from photos of her friends, taken strictly on an iPhone, often intentionally “bad,” so she does not find herself relying on the phone photo as the true source imagery but as the starting point of a portrait that slowly takes steps away from reality with each preparatory drawing and composition. Cheng places her protagonists into a monochromatic environment, keeping the background vague so the subject matter stands out against the surface. The artist selects artificial colors for both subject and surroundings—in Darling, the man’s skin is pink and, surrounding him, a lavender room. Of her artistic process, Cheng notes that she spends ample time thinking about and working on the color palette of each painting. She is particularly drawn to artists with specific and direct use of color: Josef Albers’ series Homage to the Square, Mark Rothko’s color fields, and Ad Reinhardt’s geometric layers. Cheng is drawn to these artists’ ability to create both emotion and space, despite their compositions’ simple forms. Similarly, while Darling is truly representational, Cheng creates an existential, atmospheric portrait out of a simple composition and varying shades of a handful of colors.
“…through the two-dimensionality of figure and ground and through the artificiality of the choice of colors, the people in her pictures become abstracts that the subjects are not so much signifiers or carriers of meaning rather than, primarily, carriers of color.”Sven Beckstett
Xinyi Cheng received her Bachelor of Arts from the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, in Beijing, China, and her Master of Fine Arts from Mount Royal School of Art, Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore. Cheng has completed residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Wassaic Artist Residency, New York; Keyholder Residency Program, New York; The Bronx Museum of Arts AIM Program, New York; and The Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. In 2019, she was the recipient of the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel. In 2020, she had her first solo exhibition at a major museum, Hamburger Bahnhof. Cheng currently lives and works in Paris, France.