Chen, Ying-Teh’s Colorful Paintings – About My Icon Figure Paintings

Written by Chen, Ying-Teh

I have drawn human figure paintings for many years, but I seldom sketched paintings by facing figure objects directly. I found my human figure paintings were to express the meanings through paintings with concrete structure but not completely factual. The meanings implied may be different to understand obviously but expressed to viewers. I eliminated many dramatic actions when painting, emphasizing the mental conditions of objects, which presented the secret codes of the painters mentally. When drawing human figure paintings, a careful artist always finds himself drawing of himself. For example, for the great works of the greatest human painting artist – Leonardo da Vinci, no matter any icons, males and females, children and elders in his paintings, people never confused his paintings with those of other artists because all of his paintings present his personal style in human figure paintings.

I drew various types of paintings and themes and human figures often appear in my paintings. I like to draw monochromatic paintings which enable me to immerse myself into the mental phase of the objects deeply. I had used dark violet blue which has an extremely low color value to create my human figure paintings for a period of time, and I also used such color to draw newborn babies. During my painting process, I always like to debate with myself that monochromatic paintings are good, but can you leave the joyful colorful world behind? I do not want to create stereotype of my style intentionally. However, famous artists nowadays adopted the art strategy of “obsession” which obsessively ask themselves and others accept their “tenacious ideas” that they chose one idea and skill for their life to create their artworks. I don’t want my paintings become dull. The world is wonderful with day and night and different four seasons. Therefore, in addition to monochromatic paintings, I also drew human figures in various colors.

I love the nature and have drawn many landscape paintings. However, human figures should be the object of activities in the nature. The nature is only the stage of human activities. Therefore, human figures turned into my theme topics of paintings. I live in Paris for a long time and have seen many famous artworks. My favorites are those religion icon paintings in the early time of Renaissance, such as the God, the Christ, the Virgin, the Son and the apostles. In the early time of Renaissance, perspective paintings hadn’t become the main stream and artists used dual-dimension to create their artworks. With a little knowledge of human anatomy, they had created many great work pieces that I adore, even there might be some mistakes. When it came to the High Renaissance, artists realized aerial perspective and human anatomy to gradually revise the mistakes in the past, but at the same time, they also lost many things to be presented. To perform art well or not is not determined by presenting subjects accurately, which is also the blind spot of art development. In fact, rational technology has been introduced into the contemporary western art history, such as the modern art that applied mechanical dynamics and computer art, digital art, and 3D art nowadays. Art and science are the opposition of objectivity and subjectivity. Through the process of development, art and science find and affect each other, which also proved that art and other academic disciplines have pushed the development of civilization culture history. (However, the development of art history in China is comparatively linear without such complex dialectical progress in the western art.)

    My favorite is icons, which presented the purity of human figures in their front faces, like photos on ID cards. Icons are not pictures of real persons. Instead, artists used human figures as the example to image gods with religious people through hundreds of years to sanctify those icons. Because artists at that time did not observe real human bodies to draw but learned from their mentors, they had imaged the sacred atmosphere in church to construct the heaven by icons. Later on, the historians found that human bodies were cover by clothes, which led artists to draw icons and human figures paintings by their imagination for hundreds of years. Those paintings might have many errors; however, due to these special reasons, iconology was developed to explore this kind of painting art. When icons turned to develop on canvas forming altarpieces, arts drew human figures more accurately. When it came to the Baroque Period, human figures became more colorful and some aesthetic interest of human figure paintings disappeared gradually.

   In terms of Chinese paintings, the majority of Chinese paintings are landscape paintings , some human figure paintings thrived in certain periods, for example, the paintings of emperors, great statesmen and thinkers, Buddha and arhats, ancestors, great officials and warriors, and general citizens. Western missionaries such as Giuseppe Castiglione were good at oil paintings. Since the emperors and artists in China did not like western art, they turned to use ink to create ink wash paintings, which developed an important path for Chinese human figures paintings that combine Chinese and western cultures later on. Giuseppe Castiglione who served three emperors of the Qing Dynasty drew magnificent figure paintings of the Qianlong Emperor. The emperor also ordered the court painters to draw figure paintings for his twenty officials and warriors who made great contributions for the country. Compared to the western culture, human figure paintings were not the mainstream in Chinese culture; however, Chinese culture has developed physiognomy. People in China tended to use physiognomy to evaluate their personality, future and destiny, even to evaluate their sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. Therefore, human figures paintings have emphasized the physiognomy of subjects, which enticed artists to idealize their human figure paintings. People in both eastern and western cultures understood the imperfection in a later period when Auguste Rodin created old woman sculpture and people finally realized imperfection is also a kind of beauty in art performance.

   Here are some of my afterthoughts and feelings to introduce my three kinds of human figure paintings.

   New Year Happiness: When I drew the figures in blue color, I also adore those figures in the civil culture, which presented my childhood memories and wonderful feelings. I like to draw fish and read rhythms, which remind me of a song – Groping for Fish. The Chinese pronunciation of fish is a symbol of wellbeing and great harvest, such as big carp sounds like great fortune and gold fish sounds like jewelry and gold. And people love this kind of good implication. Moreover, I adore the body and life of the creatures in water. I amplified those fish with shining scales like geometrical Optique art. From the perspective of general people, it is like Pop art. The fish in my paintings were as big as pets, and I drew children playing in a lotus pond to capture the interesting sense of reality and non-reality. Children’s world is innocent, without suffering and worries in adults’ world, which balanced my single color paintings. I drew this series once every year to constitute the style of this series. Most of people at my age have grandchildren, which brought creativity to me. I drew children in my paintings to remind me of my little friends around me. Even though children will grow up, their childhood stayed in my old photos. And people in the new generation can forget about their ages and try to remind their old days. Therefore, my “As Sweet as Pumpkin,” “A Child Loves Watermelons,” “A Phoenix Comes with Grace,” Playing with a Red Carp,” and “Playing in a Lotus Garden,” plus “Daughter and Red Carp on the Lotus Waves,” “Daughter and Red Carp,” “Playing with Lotus,” “Qilin Sending Son,” “Booming Flowers,” and “Fish” in my earlier days, constitute my series of New Year Happiness.

    Happiness Nowadays: I observed people when I went out to draw human figure paintings. People on the streets in Paris, passengers in MRT, and people in MRT cars were my inspiration. In my experiences, western people have clear contours of face, which is easy to capture and to perform brightness and darkness. However, oriental people have flat faces, which are more charming. I like to draw oriental faces, instead of western faces. Once I drew a painting for my collector’s wife who was blonde and beautiful and was selected as Miss Paris. When I finished the sketch, I decided not to continue to oil the painting. Then, I refunded the payment to them. It is until when I realized through some western Classic human figures paintings, I continued to finish this painting after 20 years later. So when I finished the paintings, she was not the young lady in the oil painting anymore. But they are happy for receiving my painting because I capture her beauty in her youth. However, successful human figure paintings should surpass ethnic groups, which should not disturb how to present human figures.

     Sometimes I like to make some fun of my human figure paintings, which can add some interest on the figures with serious faces. Instead of exaggerative lines in comic books, I used traditional painting skills to present my style. For a period of time, I drew politicians, religionists, businesspersons, celebrities, artists, models, and athletes. Some of them are very popular in the societies, some of them have ultimate power, some of them are very rich, some of them are beautiful and handsome, and some of them are icon for general people, which in my paintings are presented as icons, including “King of Basketball,” “Gold Medal,” “Wishes Come True,” “Child Dream Comes True,” “Three Beauties,” and “Eastern Peony.” When people were young, they like to exercise and watch games and adore flexible bodies. Through the empathy of aesthetic psychology, you can become one of them, turning into my icons.

     Modeling has been the exclusive career for western people and some African people. With the power of economic development, people in Asia have brought oriental beauties on the international runways. In the past, young Chinese girls wore loosen green, blue, and grey clothes with two long braids and eyebrow bangs. Asia models brought out the ambition of contemporary artists in China, which inspired me to create “Three Beauties” which presents classic, modern, and revolutionary romantics, as well as “Eastern Peony.” “Lollipop Day” were presented that two brothers wearing the same shirts walking on the street during the festival day, which reminds me of the harmony memories in my childhood.

     Wisdom of Buddhism: I am not a religious Buddhist, but I worship folk beliefs like other people. Generally, people cannot tell among Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and I prefer Zen Buddhism which do not requires me to recite scriptures. Instead, we only need to keep our good hearts; Paris is the treasury of western art as well as Eastern Art.There are many classic artworks of Buddhism. When I first visited Paris 46 years ago, I found a blurred painting of Buddha sculpture in an old bookstore in Paris, which attracted me and I bought the painting album. I always remember the image. Around 50 years ago, when I visited a ceramic factory in Taiwan, I saw a Jade- color Buddha that heighted about 45 cm, which were supposed to be smashed due to some little defects. However, I asked to buy the Buddha and they sold to me for NT$5. When I went aboard, I put this Buddha in my brother’s house, and I think of the Buddha sculpture sometimes. In these years, there are many earthquakes in Taiwan. Once, the TV was smashed on the ground due to an earthquake, but the Buddha sculpture is totally fine. I am not religious, but I felt amazing to see the Buddha sculpture can protect itself.

    I want to reshape my Buddha. I drew a triple painting of “Buddha Sitting on Lotus.” On the left side, the Buddha is sitting on the rock, with arm on knee. On the right side, the Buddha is sitting on the rock with back to us and arm on knee watching the front view. In the middle, a bird is seeking for food in a lotus pond with a rainbow across the sky. In the Buddha canons, there are many miracle birds which can sing gracefully and many different colorful lights, including blue, yellow, red and white which can light up the world. I found those words after I finished my paintings. Compared to my feelings, I found I have my Buddha inside my heart.

    Nio in the Buddha art has an exaggerated face and strong bodies with a convex belly, which is totally different from David – Apollo by Michelangelo. Eastern and western artists presented different art. When I saw the ancient sculptures, I met a Nio and I divided him into two Nio protecting the Buddha in meditation. That’s how I created my “Guardian Deities.”

    I have painted figure paintings for many years, and each painting is like new life. Concept that is consistent with my character will draw smoothly,on the contrary, it is like when you meet with a stranger, I need to work harder to better know him. The painting process is like writing an article, the author needs to read over and over to fix the terms and sentences. For human figure painters, they are just like aesthetic surgeons to fix the appearance,but they create a mental situation. I believe it is the soul and spirit of human figure paintings.

                    (Date: Dec 2015)