I want to introduce a Chinese artist named Wei Shen whose works reflect the changes of Chinese society including social values, thinking of young people with the change of economy in China. Wei Shen’s innovative has demonstrated in his works that continued the traditional Chinese ink to the contemporary arts, and his works also reflected that Chinse contemporary arts are under strong influence of western culture. During 2007 to 2010, Weishen has held three arts awards in Netherlands to demonstrate the change of Chinese arts in recent years (Mao, 2006).
Chinese arts have experienced thousands of histories which is one of the arts with the longest history. In the early time of 20th century, in the period of New Cultural Movement in China, lots of western drawing skills were introduced to China. At the same time, Chinese traditional ink and painting were developed at a fast speed. Chinese contemporary arts are under the strong influence of economy. When Chinese rich people purchased car and house that represented the social status, they began to pay attention to the collection of antiques and arts, which leads to the fast expansion in the market of arts. In the 1990s, there were lots of arts solo in the Chinese capital Beijing.
Shen Wei was born in such context and started to study Chinese traditional ink at a young age including Chinese traditional ink painting that was the combination of calligraphy and traditional watercolor painting. One of the uniqueness of Shen Wei’s arts is that his works reflected the development of Chinese arts in the last century. The art show in De Bakkerij demonstrated his traditional works and contemporary works.
For example, the above works were painted in the way of Chinese traditional ink. The two people in the arts held a hamburger in their hands, showing that the western culture has deeply influenced the life of Chinese people. Though Shenwei has great talents in creating fantastic works in the field of traditional ink, he wishes to develop himself in various fields. For instance, he has greatly involved the style of Bohemia in his works with traditional Chinese works, which brought about great changes to his creating styles. It shows that Chinese young people would not be restricted in the creation of traditional works. Besides, Shenwei showed the ingenuity of combining the classical figures with the contemporary figures in one painting, aiming to express the striking contrast between the tradition and the modern world. The works may be dealt with the way of sarcasm. That is, by imitating the traditional works, the modern Chinese arts are created. For instance, in the following works, the historical figures and Chinese modern artists are in the same picture, bringing about the unique experiences to audiences.
Reference:
Mao, Cristophe, 2006, Movements: Paintings by Shen Wei. Chambers Fine Arts.
Beijing Global Design Studio 
Leave a comment