CHEN WEN HSI

Chen Wen Hsi is a pioneering artist of the Singapore-based Nanyang School, best known for his advanced handling of traditional ink and brush painting, and incorporation of modernist forms into classical pictorial contexts. Throughout his career, Chen returned time and again to depicting gibbons amongst foliage, having a fascination with their agile, lively demeanors and ease of movement. His first inspiration for painting gibbons came from the right triptych panel of the famous painting, White Robed Guanyin, Crane and Gibbon by the 13th century Southern Song Dynasty monk painter Mu Qi. Gibbons at Play reflects a signature example of Chen's gibbon ink paintings, as he contrasts his meticulous execution of the gibbons against a dynamic, swift rendition of the background trees and bamboo. Drawing from traditional painting conventions, Chen employs a vertical scroll format and an astute balance of spatial structure. The essential elements of brush painting, such as keen brushwork and boldness in execution, are maintained. However the linear flow is truncated into modernist angles and the field of composition reflects Chen's trademark 'chaotic' elements, where he juxtaposes various painting traditions into a coherent and new visual dynamic