Viewing an Abstract Painting
Wu Chen
武晨
Production date
2014
Object Detail
Media
acrylic on canvas
Measurements
80 x 100 cm
Notes
Wu Chen frequently makes reference to canonical works from western art history. Here he appropriates the central three figures from Manet’s revolutionary painting of 1863, ‘le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe’, but turns them around so we see them as if from behind instead of our privileged viewing position in front of the canvas. Wu imagined Manet, arguably the first modernist, the ‘painter of modern life’, reacting to a postmodern painting. The figures of Manet’s model, Victorine Meurend, and her male companions appear newly contemporary in their shadowy tentativeness. The coloured shapes in the background represent their conversation, and their complex triangular relationship. He wanted to show their ‘surprise at the subversion of being in a painting composition consisting of geometric lines.’ Wu Chen makes paintings about painting, obsessively returning to the themes of still life, figuration, portraiture and self-portraiture in an intense examination of the nature of the painter’s practice. He says, ‘Art history for a painter is a little like a dictionary … otherwise, there’s no foundation there for us.’
Accession number
2014.063