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This
article is translated from the Taiwan blog “Elsewhere of Elsewhere”.
It is
poorly translated. I would like to
invite all guests who master both English and Chinese to provide your
suggestions to perfect the translation, thank you in advance.
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Ting-Shih
CHEN (1916-2002), born in Changle City, Fujian Province, China, moved to Taiwan
in 1946 and pursued his artistic career through his life in Taiwan. Ting-Shih CHEN is the most important Chinese
artist and one of the greatest sculptors and lithographers in the world. Ting-Shih CHEN’s sculpture and lithograph
perfectly combine the eastern culture and modern western art. He is one of the Fifteen Greatest Artists in
my opinion. This article will focus on his
sculpture only. In December, 2007,
Ting-Shih CHEN’s lithograph, “Day and Night No. 70” (edition 1/14), recorded
USD 86, 333 at Zhong Cheng Auction, Taipei, Taiwan.
Ting-Shih
CHEN No.326 76*50*24.5 cm
During Ting-Shih CHEN’s lifetime, very few people could understand
his works. Many of his sculptures were
not publicly exhibited and did not leave a title or creation date. ( The first
sculpture appeared in 1965. In 80s,
Ting-Shih CHEN focused his art work on sculpture and stopped the creation of
lithograph until he passed away in 2002. )
We numbered Ting-Shih CHEN’s untitled works according to the number
listed in “Posthumous Collection of Ting-Shih CHEN’s works” published in
2003. For example, “No. 326” (above).
No. 326 is just like
the wind blows through messy hair (The artist used hard iron to catch the
feeling of soft and messy hair, hence successfully manipulated the material in
adverse to its physical character ).
There is no substantive facial feature in the hollow center. As time passes by, every moment of void was
frozen and preserved in a sudden.
As Chuang Tzu said in “The Adjustment of Controversies”, “therefore the
sage does not pursue, but views things in the
light of heavenly nature”. All subjects
may be looked at their natural forms The
sage does not argue the difference between “one” and “another”. Instead, the sage understands the world
according to Tao. No. 326 looks into the
essence of time, and transmits the sense of history through the realm of senses
(instead of the realm of knowledge).
Maybe No. 326 could be named as “Heavenly Nature”?
Ting-Shih
CHEN Time, Memory 67.5*34.5*14 cm
How to gaze at the time? How to
appreciate the eternity in a transient moment?
Those topics are all Ting-Shih Chen’s life-long pursuits. (“Time, Memory”, as above) The gearwheel of time stops running. All things are frozen suddenly. Memories (the objects on the round disk) may
not be recalled clearly, but they are engraved in the time. Perfect balance and abundant implications……. The change of the world was captured in the
wheel of time, which is antique, primitive, heavy and full of archaeological
senses.
Ting-Shih
CHEN Moon After the Rain 38*22*16 cm
Not only focusing topics on the lapse of time, Ting-Shih CHEN is
also sensitive to nature, as above, “Moon After the Rain”, which is a moon with
an outer-round-and-inner-square shape.
The outer round is slightly irregular, along with the inner square to
depict the lunar halo, thus renders the moon much more vivid. The moon, silent and vivid, “Blushing face
half-hidden behind the lute in her arms.”, with a touch of
disappearing horizontal dark cloud on the above, shines her light on the ground
from the sky ( see the bigger holes and smaller holes on the left column
). The right shorter column, in contrast
with the left longer column, brings the distance between the sky and the
ground. The upper, powerful part of the
right column balances the whole composition and pushes the sky higher and
higher.
“Moon After the Rain”
inherites the great legacy of the traditional Chinese ink paintings which has
been mastered by many Chinese painters since the era of the great painter, Kuan
Fang. Their skills such as the
handling of lunar halo, disappearing dark cloud, the depiction of the
moonlight, pushing the sky, the hazy state with language also rests….. Etc. This
artwork combines the above Chinese methods with the western sculpture
technique. “Moon After the Rain” becomes
an excellent example of modern sculpture integrating the eastern and western
art.
Ting-Shih
CHEN Warmonger 1982 85*48*25 cm
“Warmonger”, as above, nails the characteristics of the abandoned
and desolate scrape iron to make the viewers feel like undergoing the cruelty
of war. The perforated head, the helmet
dropped on the ground, entangled caltrops, and the torso penetrated by
shotholes, tell the persistent stories of killing repeatedly. On the right side, a fragile thin iron column
( the barral of a gun or a sabre? ) obliquely supports the body. “Buried deep in the sand are broken lances,
have yet rust are their spearheads.”The war is ongoing. The
solder refuses to fall down and still struggles to fight in the war. The fighting spirit makes viewers’ blood run
cold.
Ting-Shih
CHEN Lamp 1999 109*52*31.5 cm
Is “concrete” really an idea opposite to “abstract”? Ting-Shih CHEN’s “Lamp” (as above) challenges
the borderline between concrete and abstract.
At first look, “Lamp” seems a concrete work ( we can tell it is a lamp
without referring to the title ). In
fact, it is abstract ( look at the bright light and halos! ). “Lamp” is the abstract expression of a
concrete form. It looks like concrete,
but it is abstract; it seems abstract, but it is not really abstract, just like
the old saying “to see the substance in the empty, and the empty in the
substance”. “Lamp” integrates both
concrete and abstract to express perception and intuition, and grasps the
essence of everything.
All great artists have to find out his own expression in the
contemporary world he lives in. To the
most profoundity and subtlety, no era, no one’s style would be repetitious. Time is so precious that even this second is
different from the next second. The
great artist confirmes the uniqueness of the existence and thus escortes life
through the endless, meaningless space, which can be an explanation to Master
Sheng-Yen’s words “The vast space may have an end; but my thought is infinite”.
If we compare Ting-Shih CHEN with Sanyu (Yu SAN), Sanyu is the
best artist of Chinese oil paintings, and he found eastern souls in western
media. The western media is the “master”
while the eastern souls are the “guests”.
Overall speaking, Sanyu's works have a taste of “casual paintings”. Ting-Shih CHEN mastered the western sculpture
with eastern souls. The eastern souls
are the “masters” while the western media is the “guest”. Ting-Shih CHEN commanded western techniques
with ease as he wishes, just as the mind directing the arm, and the arm
directing the fingers, which unrivaled all artists in Chinese lithograph and
sculpture.
This article is titled as Ting-Shih CHEN’s work “Sounds of Rarity”
in 1996. The title “Sounds of Rarity” is
quoted from “Great sound is hard to hear” of Chapter 41 of Lao-Tzu, “The
sparkling Tao seems dark. Advancing in
the Tao seems like regression. Settling
into the Tao seems rough. True virtue is
like a valley. The immaculate seems
humble. Extensive virtue seems
insufficient. Established virtue seems
deceptive. The face of reality seems to
change. The great square has no corners. Great ability takes a long time to perfect. Great sound is hard to hear. The great form has no shape. The Tao is hidden and nameless.” Because of an accident at his childhood,
Ting-Shih CHEN lived in a silent world through his life. The eastern society does not encourage to
become an artist. Ting-Shih CHEN
struggled under a harsher environment than western masters. “Sounds of Rarity” and “Great sound is hard
to hear” best describe Ting-Shih CHEN’s life.
Ting-Shih CHEN awakened the inner world of the iron by combining
iron elements together, and thus gave birth to a new life of the combined iron
with creativity and aesthetics.
Ting-Shih CHEN’s works grasps the essence of eastern culture and can
stand up to western masters’ works as an equal.
Ting-Shih CHEN is deemed the best eastern artist in my opinion.
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