Chen Junde's "Star Continent Edge"

Shanghai oil painter Chen Junde (1937-2019) has long been a "hermit" in the art world, he does not hype himself, does not cater to the market, does not stammer the magnate, only pays attention to painting, was a former professor at the Art Research Institute of the Shanghai Theater Academy, and is also an art educator.

After the reform and opening up, many Chinese painters entered the Singapore market, the most famous of which was Wu Guanzhong. Chinese painters have entered the Singapore and Malaysian market through various channels, and twenty years ago, Chen Junde also became acquainted with singapore galleries, which is different from the way other painters operate, which can be said to be the arrangement of heaven. In 2001, Mr. and Mrs. Chen Junde traveled to Singapore as tourists, they were tired of walking orchard road, entered the Heng Artland Gallery of Paragon, and the host Xie Shengyuan warmly received visitors from afar, inviting the couple to sit down for a cup of tea. It was a pleasure to drink and chat. The polite guest left a business card, and Xie Shengyuan learned that the other party was a Shanghai oil painter. Since then, the Xie Shengyuan family and Chen Junde and his wife have established a deep friendship and cooperative relationship. The following year, in 2002, Xie Shengyuan and his daughter Xie Shuhui visited Shanghai and visited Mr. and Mrs. Chen Junde, and Xie Shengyuan later wrote in the article: "The friendship of the host, the food of Shanghai, and the scenery of Zhujiajiao are still fresh in my memory. More importantly, the two sides agreed to cooperate for the first time, and in December 2002, the exhibition "The Rhythm of Life: Chen Junde Oil Painting Exhibition" was held in Singapore. Over the next ten years, Xingyi held three solo and one group exhibition for Chen Junde.

Xie Shengyuan and Chen Junde attach great importance to painting on paper, and in 2007 they specially displayed paintings on paper, and in 2010, they also exhibited paintings on paper and oil paintings together. Many painters paint sketches outdoors as drawings in the studio, but Unlike Chen Junde, he treats sketches as paintings on paper. Using different mediums, from pencils, charcoal, fountain pens to oil sticks, his sketches are not just preparations for creation, the sketch itself is a finished work. Through these sketches, we can see Chen Junde's solid basic skills. Picasso once said: "As far as painting is concerned, there is nothing better than the original sketch." Tan's 2007 exhibition on paper in Singapore was his first public exhibition of sketches of the Travel Series. Xie Shengyuan's son Xie Yunian wrote in the album: "Like his oil paintings, Chen Junde's paper paintings are also based on impressionism as the source and expressionism as the soul. He also said: "Many people have never seen the other side of Chen Junde, that is, he paints realistic works, which are simply impeccable in technique, and can be completely comparable to first-class old painters." Still, he preferred expressionism. For him, the best expressionist work is somewhere between photogenic reality and transcendent abstraction, hazy and mysterious. ”

Here, I would like to focus on Chen Junde's painting exhibition in Singapore in 2005. Xie Shengyuan's daughter Shuhui, very artistic talent, is her father's palm pearl and right-hand man, she planned Chen Junde's first painting exhibition in Lion City in 2002, and continued to help her father prepare for the 2005 Chen Junde painting exhibition, in the process of interacting with Chen Junde and his wife, the intelligent and kind Shuhui left a good impression on the painter and his wife. However, on March 13, 2005, Shuhui died of illness, which was like a thunderbolt on a sunny day for the Xie family, and the blow was so great that it could be imagined. During this period, Chen Junde has always been concerned about Mr. Xie's emotional condition and deeply regrets Shuhui's death, writing: "(Shuhui) His heroic posture and talent are vividly remembered, and his voice is endlessly heard... We cannot bear the grief and mourn deeply. In 2005, Chen Junde painted a portrait of Shuhui, mainly rose, and kept Shuhui's image forever. Chen Junde paints many landscape paintings and still life paintings, in addition to a few self-portraits, he rarely paints portraits for people, this portrait of Shuhui is not only precious to the Xie family, but also has certain reference value for the study of Chen Junde's artistic career. In the same year, while Chen Junde was in Malaysia, Xie Shengyuan and his wife also toured the ancient city of Malacca and the beach of Penang, and the company of friends temporarily alleviated the pain of the Xie family's bereavement.

Xie Shengyuan told me that the main impression Chen Junde gave him was one word: true! His paintings are also a piece of true interest and truth, and in the process of interaction, he sometimes looks like a naïve child.

Chen Junde once told Xie Shengyuan that in the 1960s and 1970s, he privately brought paintings to lin fengmian to ask for advice, and Lin Fengmian admired these paintings very much, and asked him to collect these works well and not show them to outsiders. The implication is that these paintings are pure works of art, which do not conform to the aesthetic mainstream of the time, for fear of bringing trouble to Chen Junde. Thanks to the reminders of his elders, Chen Junde knew how to protect himself.

Lin Fengmian has painted some paintings that emphasize structure, but in the end he did not go further in the direction of abstraction. Lin Fengmian once said to the writer Mu Xin: "I paint what I understand, I don't understand, I don't paint." (See Mu Xin's "Double Mourning") This concept of Lin Fengmian must also affect Chen Junde, Chen Junde's exploration from figurative to abstract, always appropriate, within the scope of his "understanding", does not understand, he does not paint. Some of his abstract oil paintings in his later years, such as the "Series of Mountains, Forests, Clouds and Water Maps", have a very accurate sense of proportion, similar to the large-scale freehand of Chinese paintings, neither abstract to the point of being ignorant, nor implementing them, giving people unlimited imagination space. For the practice of abstract painting, he did not take the path of Zao Wou-ki and Zhu Dequn, he continued to explore on the basis of Lin Fengmian. Haipai is a label for Chen Junde, whose artistic creation, emotional sustenance and soul dwelling are closely linked to the city of Shanghai. But the word "Hai Pai" could not accommodate him in its entirety, and he also had places beyond the Hai Pai.

Chan Came to Lion City to hold exhibitions, and during the new period, he occasionally went out to sketch and created some oil paintings and drawings, leaving a beautiful shadow for Singapore.

Xie Shengyuan is a polite art dealer and a highly accomplished literati, working for Sin Chew Daily as a telecommunications translator in his early years; founded the Xingyi Oriental Art Center in 1984; and is now the editor-in-chief of Jardine Century magazine. Between him and Chen Junde, beyond the relationship between the dealer and the artist, they are friends and have deep personal feelings. The interaction between the older generation of literati is very simple and beautiful, which is desirable. (He Hua)