Before 2000, in the cultural circles of Shanghai, there were three of the most popular leading figures, known as "two Chen and one Yu": Yu Qiuyu, Chen Danqing, and Chen Yifei.
In the fields of literature, art, and entertainment, they are all celebrities who are king of the mountains, just like the three representatives of the exquisite culture of the "Shanghai School". Once upon a time, the appearance rate even exceeded that of many first-line stars, which can be described as a fish with fame and fortune. Under such a prestigious name, Han Han, who provoked the shanghai post-student Han Han, was jealous, and he had publicly ridiculed the general confusion, "I don't know why, I have a look in my head", which triggered a scolding war in the literary world.
However, the world is a big dream, life is several autumn cool, once a shanghai "troika" that was once simmered and steamed, in just over 10 years, the reputation has long been in the dark: the first two, now still in the limelight, are the darlings of the public, countless fans; only Chen Yifei, who is also famous for a while, seems to be just a short-lived character. In the past 10 years, whether it is the elite circle that prides itself on its taste or the all-pervasive new media, the number of mentions of "Chen Yifei" should be decreasing.
Chen Yifei. 2003
Quietly gone by the years, the opposite eye does not know, this once famous cultural star, seems to be gradually forgotten by the public, interpreting a kind of "people go tea cold" sadness.
Ironically, before falling on the set of the movie "The Barber" in April 2005, Chen Yifei was clearly an internationally renowned "legend of the sea", "an oil painter most familiar to the Chinese people", and even a "big signboard" in the contemporary Chinese cultural world. On the day of his death, a well-known colleague published an interview with the title "The Sage Is On the Way to Preaching", which is extremely high.
In 1972, Chen Yifei and Wei Jingshan took a group photo in front of the painting
Before Chen Yifei was born, he really took the lead in terms of achievements. As early as 1991, in the autumn auction of Hong Kong Swire Christie's, his famous work "Xunyang Relics" set a record for the highest price of Chinese oil paintings at that time with a transaction price of 1.37 million Hong Kong dollars; as a Chinese, he was the first to rely on oil paintings to stand alone in the United States, and was handed over as a gift to politicians of various countries by international tycoons such as Armand Hammer; Fellow Mu Xin, Chen Danqing, Shi Guoliang, in the era of overseas loneliness and white eyes, he continued to have solo exhibitions in New York, Tokyo, Washington and other places. Among the Chinese painters who went abroad after 1980, he and Ding Shaoguang should be the first to break out of the famous hall.
Chen Yifei, "The Remains of Xunyang", 1991
Two years after his death, the famous work "Ode to the Yellow River" also made more than 40 million yuan, achieving the highest in the history of Chinese oil painting. It should be known that before and after this, Song Huizong Zhao Yao's "Sketching Rare Bird Diagram", which is known as the "peak of Chinese painting", was finally hammered out for 23 million at the Guardian International Auction, which was already a "sky-high price" that people at the time did not dare to say, and it was the biggest news in the art world that year. In terms of the wide range of influence, there are few contemporary Chinese painters who can stand out. Chen Yifei's ancestral home is Ningbo, and these people are in Shanghai, which is very spicy and hardworking.
After he became famous as a "painter", he contacted his peers and friends in various cross-border areas, and was at ease at the intersection of culture and commerce: engaging in "big art", advocating "visual art", publishing magazines, designing clothing, forming modeling companies, shooting series of movies, showing the talent, elegance and shrewdness of "Shanghai literati". When the spring breeze was triumphant, his celebrity friends were all over the world, Yu Qiuyu was his "best friend", Chen Kaige was his "brother", Chen Danqing was his "buddy", and even Zeng Li, Chen Kun, and Zhao Wei followed the stars and held the moon. Today, there are many particularly beautiful large sculptures on the streets of Shanghai, which are left by Chen Yifei.
In the 1980s, Chen Yifei was in the United States. From left: Chen Danqing, Zhang Hongnian, Bai Jingzhou, Chen Yifei
He had spare energy, intending to complete his childhood dream, to make a film as a director, and was once popular, becoming a turning point in his artistic life. Since 1993, films such as "Old Dreams on the Sea" and "People About Dusk" have been released one after another, all of which are high-scoring films of Douban, and the honorific title of "Hou Xiaoxian of the Mainland" has not gone away. Even, Jiangnan Water Town Zhouzhuang can become an Internet celebrity resort, thanks to his single hand to win the red, "ancient town tourism fever" has also begun. Chen Danqing followed in his footsteps, and only then did Wuzhen's "leak picking" become bigger.
In the early 1980s, a small boat in Zhouzhuang brought Chen Yifei to complete his "Hometown Memories" series
In my opinion, Chen Yifei's "life and deeds" are mainly in the praise of Red Zhou Zhuang, Zhang Da Chinese painting, the production of three long-standing films, spiritual heritage continues to inspire the latecomers; and the place of his "Xi Shi Special" is that when the world stubbornly believes that the 4 characters of "China" and "tradition" refer to "backwardness" and "ugliness", "cherishing its treasure and losing its state", he has the unique insight to discover beauty, discover the beauty of China, discover the beauty of Chinese classics, and then leap into the "ultimate representative of Chinese aesthetics". If it is easy to engage and lose the time, can it be said to be wise? Chen Yifei took the lead.
As a painter, Chen Yifei's complexity lies in the fact that: on the one hand, his works of art are very "retro", from form to content to subject matter, nothing more than those things that connect "classical"; but on the other hand, his vision is actually very "advanced", and people abandon me to take the whip early. In this regard, he is smarter than Chen Danqing, at least as soon as he debuted, he found a sense of direction, set a goal, and was persistent and firm.
Chen Yifei took a photo in front of his 1970s work "Pacing"
People say that Chen Yifei was a well-deserved "Shanghai school gangster" in the cultural circles around the 1990s. The size of this "big guy" is, of course, not a contest over who is richer and who has a higher status, but the "big" of talent, mind and vision.
In the last century, unlike ordinary Chinese artists who liked to "paint ugly" and "expose ugly", focusing on exposing all kinds of dirt and ugliness in the homeland, and winning the attention of foreigners, Chen Yifei always sought beauty. "Chen Yifei's legacy" is actually "rediscovering the beauty of China".
This "old Koehler", who has been here all his life to explore the beauty of Chinese culture, tradition and reality, is completely a new aestheticist in the Shanghai school. Looking at his paintings, he does not look like a person who has stayed in the West for many years, and the old Shanghai, the ladies of the old era, and the small bridges and rivers in Jiangnan will always be his artistic themes. Although it was an oil painting, it was both an exceptional honor and a to be expected that he would eventually make him famous internationally. Human appreciation of "beauty" can be common, where is the difference between blue eyes and black hair?
"Chen Yifei is almost well known in Zhouzhuang and is regarded as a great benefactor"
It is just that this very deliberate formal beauty, as well as the limitations of the subject matter, is indeed easy to incur "spit". This made Chen Yifei a "big man of the Shanghai School" and "a leader in the cultural circles", but at the same time, he was frequently questioned by "lang to get a false name", believing that he just happened to discover and sell the Chinese symbols needed by the international market, and the kitsch followed the current, which was "the autumn rain of the painting world". Such accusations, of course, are not entirely unjustified. In my opinion, Chen Yifei's art, at least two shortcomings are obvious:
First, his paintings, films, are just a vigorous aesthetic, nostalgic and realistic, but also stopped in the pursuit of visual pleasure and interest, strong decoration, artistic impact is not enough; second, is too easy to operate, very "elegant and popular", very commercial, and even a little "vulgar". For a long time, his "base camp", his hometown of Shanghai, the art museum refused to make an exhibition for him, that is, he thought that he had oversized the market and had become entertained. Soon after Chen Yifei passed away, people in the industry began to discuss whether his oil paintings had room for appreciation, which was obviously related to this doubt.
Very early involved in the clothing industry, the company once flourished
A few years ago, a painter's predecessor gave a lecture and said publicly that "Chen Yifei's paintings are very assembly line", and the criticism point is that Chen Yifei's paintings are excessively formal and monotonous. To this day, there are still many Chen Yifei fakes on the auction floor, precisely because the "replicability" is relatively strong. It is said that local industry painters or painters, who were the most fond of high imitation "Chen paintings" that year, could print dozens of paintings every half a month, and they were exquisite. An 80X100cm "Xunyang Relic Rhyme", they sold for one or two thousand and they were overjoyed. "Those who are in the sea, those who are close to the business", and "the leader" Chen Yifei are even more difficult to escape their drawbacks. This gene, its son, seems to be perfectly "reproduced".
To be fair, Chen Yifei's spirit of inquiry and professionalism are probably few people today. But the "Myth of Chen Yifei" is, after all, irreproducible.
Chen Yifei's life, the most worthy of "gossip", in addition to paintings, movies, making money, 54-year-old marrying a 29-year-old beauty model Song Meiying as his wife, it is the old grudge with director Jiang Wen.
So far, there have been rumors that the reason why Chen Yifei died young on the set was on the one hand, he was too hard to work the other hand, he was stimulated by Jiang Wen. Many commemorative texts have repeatedly suggested that if Chen Yifei had ignored filmmaking, ignored "The Barber", and not encountered such entanglements, he might not have died early.
Jiang Wen
Before Chen Yifei was born, he was a famous "gentleman of thick manners", gentle and elegant, friendly to others, righteous and loose money, and excellent popularity. Yu Qiuyu and Chen Danqing, two people who have heard of Shanghai, have always been "the king does not see the king", he can be a "best friend", so after many years, they can still make them all miss it, and it is already visible. But his grudge with Jiang Wen was indeed unexpected by most people.
Chen Yifei has had a "movie dream" since he was a child. When he reached the day of fame and wealth, he immediately began to implement it, and the small test knives of the two films "Old Dreams at Sea" and "People About Dusk" made him more confident. At the age of 50, he was ambitious to make a great movie, which was the final work that made him a success, "The Barber".
Stills from The Barber
But after all, he is a layman, belongs to the painter crossover, to make such an ideal perfect film, it is necessary to rely on the support of professionals. The first thing he thought of was Jiang Wen. High-grade, cultured, able to direct, understand the script, but also act, so many generalist entertainment industry figures, Shejiang Wen has no second person. More importantly, Jiang Wenwen has a wide network and super ability - it is said that any film and television drama, as long as it can persuade Jiang Wen to join, funds, actors, props, and relationship networks can all sit back and relax, and people alone can bring you a crew.
But the problem is that Jiang Wencai is magnificent, heroic and true, not only is he an idealist who is not scrupulous and unscrupulous, but also a strong person who never retreats, and if you want to enjoy the convenience he brings, you must be able to resist his "hegemonic" style. Chen Yifei and Jiang Wen, one south and one north, before the soft and then hard, in the world is very different, and are all perfectionists, at the wine table no harm to call brothers and brothers, really to the stage of cooperation and will not be beautiful and common? Thus, the tragicomedy opened and ended like this.
Chen Yifei's widow, Ms. Song Meiying
On May 15, 2002, Chen Yifei announced the start of filming of "The Barber" and invited Jiang Wen to serve as the male number one. On October 26, it was reported that there was a problem with the script and had to postpone the start-up. The two resumed cooperation during the negotiations. However, only a few months later, rumors broke in the newspapers that "Chen Yifei and Jiang Wen had serious differences, and Chen angrily left the crew" and so on. On January 23, 2003, Chen Yifei finally couldn't bear it and publicly said that "Jiang Wenren has a problem" and must stop filming. The contradiction between the two was white-hot, and they could no longer sit together.
Now it seems that Chen Yifei's "accusations" against Jiang Wen mainly include: 1, uneasy about the starring role, excessive interference in the crew arrangement, such as his insistence on letting Zhou Yun be the heroine; 2, casually changing the script, changing it 8 times in January, repeatedly difficult to give birth; 3, the use of funds is not standardized, resulting in a "financial black hole", but the total investment of 14.5 million yuan in a few months has been spent 9.42 million. The situation and so on, the two storms are also constantly on the entertainment version of the media.
On the set of the film
On January 14, 2003, Chen Yifei held a press conference in Shanghai to announce the "Six-Point Statement", and "The Barber" entered a period of dormancy for more than a year.
Chen Yifei was exhausted by this. After two years of silence, on December 20, 2004, he completely got rid of Jiang Wen and announced that the replacement crew of "The Barber" was restarted, and the male and female protagonists also locked chen Kun and Zeng Li.
Entertainment industry bigwigs almost poured out their nests for a memorial service
He became more and more desperate, repeatedly reshooting for a small detail, and the 59-year-old followed the young people to get up early and go to bed late, working day and night. In fact, at that time, he already had stomach bleeding, but he only had a slight rest for two days. Neither hospitalized nor informed anyone, he immediately went to work. Without Jiang Wen's "finger-pointing", he is obviously more autonomous, but the amount of labor also seems to have become more overwhelming.
With a group of friends in Italy
In this way, when "The Barber" reached four-fifths of the progress, Chen Yifei, who had to do everything in detail, could no longer hold on and fell down almost without warning. After being sent to Shanghai Huashan Hospital for three days, he was bleeding profusely in his digestive tract and finally stopped turning the clock on the morning of April 10, 2005. He was truly ambitious, and he did not leave a last word, so he gave up his life and left nothing to regret in the world.
In 2006, the posthumous work "Yutang Chunnuan" was auctioned for a high price of 10 million, and it broke the record again
It is said that when Jiang Wen heard the news of Chen Yifei's death, he was also sad. He turned off his phone and let the message go to the mobile secretary desk, and didn't go out of the room for a week. Later, some insiders admitted that the two people from "former friends" to "turning against each other", in fact, how much resentment and hatred can there be, it is nothing more than a conflict of personality, and the same is true to doing things. "Character is destiny" has been more vividly interpreted, but it is too late.
He founded a magazine with him before his death
In May 2003, Chen Yifei, who was busy starting "The Barber", once said this sentence forcefully to reporters: "I am an idealistic person, whether it is filming or advertising, I hope to do my best!" At this time, it seems that all endings and fates are predestined.