Light As These by Chen Wenji, 2011; Board,Oil on linen, 20x148cm

Chekhov once said,” A novelist is not the one to solve problem, but the one to ask questions.” If we convert the literature into painting, they should have the same meaning. In the artist’s perspective, everything is a problem. The artist is not necessary to assume the responsibility of answering when they are facing the powerless of questions. There is even no meaning to answer. It just prompts the existence of questions. Plainly speaking, art itself is already a problem.

On December 4, 2011, aye gallery will show you dozen of pieces of Chen Wenji’s latest works. These works remain his painting style in recent years, resulting different reaction of visual sense by different forms. There forms (or works) still don’t have any meanings, not represent anything, nor point to anything. Maybe they are nothing, but perhaps they are everything……

Yellow by Chen Wenji, 2011; Board,Oil on linen, 25x29.5cm

Couple by Chen Wenji, 2011; Oil on aluminum board, 100x42cm

What by Chen Wenji, 2011; Board,Oil on linen, 100X34.5cm

Duad by Chen Wenji,（Drawing in Duplicate）, 2011; Board,Oil on linen, 100x21cmx2

In a lecture given on behalf of his previous solo exhibition held in CAFAM in 2010, Chen Wenji explained that he actually held no revolutionary ambitions, and that he was simply following the call of his own inner voice, in search of purity of form—a reference to Li Xianting’s essay, “Chen Wenji’s paintings and A Quiet Revolution.” As is commented by Liu Libin, the art world hastily switched from emphasizing enlightenment to indiscriminately applying cultural sociology during the incomplete linguistic turn of the 1900s; out of this arose the inevitable popularity of vulgar sociology. Given this context, it is unnecessary to restate the great significance of Chen Wenji’s new work. Over the course of over twenty years of creation, Chen Wenji has kept to the fringe, maintaining the clearheaded sobriety of an artist. In an atmosphere in which it is customary to regard form as the cuticle layer of content, he uses his works to let everyone know: form is content. At a time when a wave of artists play the part of philosopher and sociologist, Chen Wenji holds fast to the identity of a painter—in his words, “I just paint.”

Report related to this:

1. 2010 CHEN WENJI quoted from leapleapleap.com

Opening: 3PM—6PM，December 04, 2011

Date: December 04, 2011—— February 04, 2012

Venue: Room 601, Unit 3, Yong He Garden, Yard 3, Dong Nin He Road, An Ding Men, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100013

Courtesy of the artist and aye gallery.