The 1990s saw the rapid development of China's economy in parallel with the instantaneous pivot of China's realistic oil painting from the "scar style" popular in the 1980s to the classical themes, represented by Chen Yifei's classical noble lady paintings. In addition to showing Chen's superb realistic techniques, the Admiration composited in this period also incorporates his creative ingenuity, rendering out a romantic and misty mood in which the audience would wander between reality and fantasy.In the 1980s, a period of the beginning of the reform and opening up, Chen Yifei resolutely left for the United States with only $38 in his pocket to study at the Hunter College for a Master's Degree, and he was named "The first artist from the People's Republic of China to study in the United States" in the The Art Newspaper in 1980. This experience of studying and working in the United States greatly influenced on his personal artistic style. Chen's creative genres at this period focused on water town sceneries, musical figures, and classical noble ladies. In particular, the artist adopted bold black as the background of his portrait paintings for the purpose of eliminating the spatial-temporal reference. The postures of the models invariably deliver a sense of stability from mind to appearance, as well as a sense of gentle and delicate sculpture. Painted in the 1990s, the Admiration witnessed the portrait painting style fostered during the artist's stay in the United States.
It had been nearly ten years since Chen Yifei went to the United States. He returned to China in 1993, coming up with a creation plan of brand-new work series titled Reverie on Old Shanghai, which would reappear the charm of Shanghai in past t.mes that deeply rooted in his mind. This creation plan corroborated his aspiration of revitalizing Chinese classical culture.
The Reverie on Old Shanghai series mainly depict the Oriental women in cheongsam or classical dress. The Admiration is a classic representative of this series, boasting a picture with gentle lines, full composition, tuneful colours, and rigorous modeling, demonstrating Chen's solid realistic painting techniques. The beauty in the painting conveys a gentle temperament of noble and intellectuality, and a thoughtful and meticulous looking, which are the ultimate embodiments of his growing cultivation to the beauty of female.
Although Chen Yifei had been an internationally renowned realism master in the 1990s, he did not stop before his peak accomplishments. On the contrary, he aggressively called on "great vision" and "great Replica Handbags s" to initiate an aesthetic movement that revolutionized Chinese people's perspectives. His career was more than oil painting creation, as he expanded his realm to direct films, create a fashion brand, and publish a magazine. Thus, he was committed to bringing visual arts closer to people's real life.
The Admiration displays Chen's relentless exploration and development in cross-border arts. Compared with the cheongsam worn by the noble ladies in the Reverie on Old Shanghai series, the dressing of the beauty in the Admiration is in coincide with the colours and tailor of the Western fashion style from the collar design to the shoes going with the clothes. In the opinion of Chen Yifei, females have a unique sensitivity to beauty and can feel and show fashion. The noble lady depicted in the Admiration takes on full modern and elegant charm, from whom we can see the artist's parallel development and exploration in the fashion design field, as well as the female image combining virtues and beauty that were completely fused into his heart.
Painting within a painting: The narratives of 'Admiration'
On the basis of the portrait painting style established during Chen's stay in the United States, the Admiration backs to the traditional and elegant Oriental charm to embody his urge to revive Chinese classical culture. The noble lady in the painting conveys a gentle temperament of noble and intellectuality, with a calm and elegant looking, akin to the female protagonist Lin Daiyu's appearance description of the male protagonist Jia Baoyu in the Chinese classical novel the Story of the Stone—"brows like or not like frown, expressing sadness somewhat; eyes say or not say joy, expressing love somewhat". Thus, the noble lady in the painting appears a beauty that is hard to touch but soul-taking.
The title of the painting Admiration denotes "beautiful enough to feast eyes", connoting elegant scenery or literati's refined stuff for enjoyment, such as inscriptions on ancient bronzes or stone tablets, paintings, or calligraphy works. Appreciating the painting from the above perspectives, it is not difficult for us to speculate the double meanings given by Chen Yifei to this work—first, depict the noble lady playing with her pet bird; second, unveil the profound hidden meaning that the artist is attracted by the beauty and charm of the female. The artist gave full play to the painting title Admiration. When we savor the work, we can insight figuration in abstraction, and abstraction in figuration.
The props in portrait works are typically an important section for an artist in composition layout and character's personality shaping. The circular fan held by the noble lady in Chen's Admiration contains significant symbolic meaning. In the view of Chinese traditional culture, holding a fan and the female's cultivation have a close relationship. From the portraits of noble ladies that were brilliant in Tang Dynasty and mature in Ming Dynasty, we can find that the artists have particularly spotlight the postures of the noble lady or ladies holding her or their fans. No matter the dynamic depiction of chasing butterflies with a fan or using a fan to mask face, or the still depiction of taking a seat with a fan, just like the lady in the Admiration, the round fan shaped like the full moon is used as the intimate thing of a lady, making the female image more feminine and graceful.
The depiction of the birdcage by the artist conceals the infinite imaginary space. Both the birdcage and the little bird are not completely displayed in the picture, which is a clever clue making the audience wonder whether the cage is not completely closed. By carefully watching, we note that the light pink of the little bird's feathers echoes each other with the red clothes of the lady. Whether every twinkle and smile, or every behavior and posture of the noble lady under the brush strokes of the artist disclose the admiration of males to the charm of modern females. This conception seems to break the inherent image of classical noble ladies who are implicit and restrained like a caged bird, showing the contemporary aesthetic taste of the audience. The noble lady's eyes staring at the little bird as if she were in deep thinking, and the delicate posture that her fingers tap the table contribute to strengthening the story of the picture, leading to the imagination of the audience to interpret the meaning of this work.
Admiration was exhibited in Baoqu Tang Modern Art Gallery in 2006 and was recorded in the exhibition catalogue. Sharing a similar theme with the current work, Beauties on Promenade was sold for HK$ 83.35 million. Beauty with Fan painted in 1996 was sold for HK$ 15.575 million at the Replica Shoes 's Hong Kong Spring Modern Art Evening Sale in 2023. Admiration depicts a single portrait of a noble lady, with delicate composition, is without a doubt a classic work created by the artist in the 1990s.
躍登國際的唯美年代
兼具民族與時代特徵的女性描寫
九〇年代，隨著中國經濟高速發展，中國寫實油畫亦從八〇年代的傷痕風格陡然一轉，開始發展古典題材，陳逸飛筆下的古典仕女即是箇中代表。《清賞》正是誕生於此時，不但展示出陳逸飛高超的寫實技巧，更融入匠心獨運的創意，營造出浪漫朦朧的意境，讓觀眾彷彿徘徊於現實與夢幻之間。
1980年改革開放之初，陳逸飛毅然懷揣38美元前往美國，在亨特學院（Hunter College）攻讀碩士學位，成為1980年《藝術新聞》筆下的「第一位從中華人民共和國到美國學習的藝術家」。此番旅美經歷，為其個人藝術風格帶來巨大變化：此時陳逸飛的創作體裁，以水鄉風景、音樂人物以及古典仕女佔大比重；當中尤其值得留意的是，藝術家選擇以大膽的黑色背景創作肖像，抽掉一切對時空的指涉；模特兒的姿態，總散發著一種由內而外的穩定，以及溫柔細膩的雕塑感。誕生於九〇年代的《清賞》，即見證藝術家旅美期間確立之肖像油畫風格。
陳逸飛在旅美接近十年後，於1993年回國，其時藝術家正計劃創作一個全新作品系列，並將之定為《海上舊夢》，重新展現深植於內心的老上海風韻，此創作計畫盡見陳逸飛重振中國古典文化的渴望。
《海上舊夢》系列主要描繪穿著旗袍及古典服飾的東方女性，《清賞》即為此系列之經典呈現：畫面線條柔和，構圖飽滿，色彩和諧而且造型嚴謹，展現陳逸飛扎實的寫實功底。畫中美女流露高貴知性的溫柔氣息，眉宇間若有所思的細緻神緒，皆是陳逸飛對於女性之美，源自點滴累積之修養的極致體現。
陳逸飛於九〇年代已是蜚聲國際的寫實大師，如日中天的他非但毫不自滿，反而雄心萬丈地以「大視覺、大美術」為號召，展開一場革新國人眼界的美學運動，在油畫創作之上，陳逸飛亦執導電影、開創時裝品牌與出版雜誌，致力令視覺藝術更接近人們的現實生活。
《清賞》展現陳逸飛在跨界藝術上的不懈探索及發展：若以九〇年代初期，《海上舊夢》系列中仕女的旗袍穿著對比，《清賞》中美女所穿之服裝，從領口設計、衣履的層次配搭，皆可見融入西方時裝的配色及剪裁。陳逸飛認為女性對美具有獨到的敏銳度，並且認為她們最能感知並展示時尚；《清賞》所描繪的仕女散發著富有現代感的典雅韻味，足見藝術家在時裝設計的平行發展及探索，完美融入其心中唯美而內外兼備的女性形象。
畫中有畫，「清賞」之雙重演繹
《清賞》在陳逸飛旅美期間確立的肖像油畫風格之上，回溯傳統幽雅的東方韻味，體現了一種銳意重振中國古典文化的盼望。畫中仕女流露高貴知性的溫柔氣息，神緒自若高雅，尤有《紅樓夢》所載，林黛玉對賈寶玉的容貌描寫：「兩彎似蹙非蹙籠煙眉，一雙似喜非喜含情目」，流露著似是難以觸碰卻攝人心弦之美。
畫題《清賞》釋義清標可賞，意指幽雅的景致，或文人精巧雅致的清玩之物，如金石、書畫等；引以觀賞本畫，則不難推想陳逸飛為作品賦予雙重意涵：既寫畫中仕女養鳥玩籠之態，亦隱藏藝術家為眼前女子的绰约嫵媚所吸引之深意。藝術家將「清賞」之畫題發揮得淋漓盡致，細味之下猶可悟出意中有象，而象中有意。
肖像作品的道具，往往是藝術家構圖佈局、塑造人物個性的重要一環。陳逸飛在《清賞》一作中為仕女安排一柄團扇，即含有重要的象徵意義：在中國傳統文化之中，執扇與女性的涵養有著密切的關聯：從輝煌於唐代繼而成熟於明代的仕女圖可見，畫家尤其著重描繪仕女的執扇姿態，不論是以扇撲蝶或掩面的動態描繪，還是單純如《清賞》中女子執扇而坐的靜態抒寫，皆可見形似圓月的團扇作為仕女的貼身之物，使女性形象更顯嬌柔嫵媚。
藝術家對於鳥籠的描繪，隱藏著無限想像空間：畫面上可見鳥籠及小鳥均沒有被完整展示，此一巧妙線索令人不禁揣測，鳥籠會否未被完全關上；仔細觀察下，更可見小鳥羽毛的淡粉，與仕女服裝透出的妃紅相互呼應。仕女的一顰一笑，舉止姿態，在藝術家筆下平添男性對時代女性魅力之傾慕，似是打破古典仕女固有如「籠中鳥」般含蓄內斂的形象，顯出與觀者接軌的時代氣息。畫中仕女凝望小鳥若有所思的眼神，以至手指輕碰桌面的細膩姿態，均有加強畫面的故事性，讓觀者發揮想像，解讀作品箇中意涵。
《清賞》於2006年曾展出於藝術館的首屆油畫/雕塑展〈靈性的呼喚〉，並載錄於展覽圖冊。與本作主題相近之《麗人行》於2018以8,335萬港幣成交，而創作於1996年的《扇》，亦於2023年香港蘇富比春季現代藝術晚拍以15,575,000港幣成交，本作同為仕女單人肖像，構圖更豐富細膩，屬藝術家九〇年代經典之作。