Chen Wenbo - Contemporary Art London Thursday, June 21, 2007 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Acquired directly from the artist

  • Exhibited

    Paris, "Chen Wenbo Solo Exhibition," Galerie Loft, 2000

  • Literature

    Galerie Loft, Vitamins Z, Paris 2000

  • Catalogue Essay

    It is almost impossible to explain the floating elements in my paintings, to say what they represent. Perhaps this ambiguity is the significance of their being...

    I hope that the Test series evokes notions of preserving youth. The strength of youth pushes at the borders of a society, forcing it to open up. Where youth meets high technology it precipatates history to break out of the confines of a conservative safety net by challenging its powers of imagination. The greater possibilities for aesthetics would be buried beneath the sociological or psychological elements. If what is actually expressed and what is understood by the language used to express it can be seen as two sides of the same coin, then the artist's coin should be to spin the coin so that the two sides blur together to form a new whole. When the two sides fuse in the confusion, no one will be able to say that one side is more accurate or precise than the other.

    - W. Chen, quoted in K. Smith, Representing the People, Manchester 1999, p. 68

98

Test No. 14

1998
Oil and acrylic on canvas.
58 5/8 x 64 1/2 in. (148.9 x 163.8 cm).
Signed, titled and dated "'Test' No. 14 Chen Wenbo 1998" on the reverse.

Estimate
£10,000 - 15,000 

Sold for £14,400

Contemporary Art

22 June 2007, 4pm & 5pm
London