Tibet-Sheepherder--Chen+Danqing

=**Tibet-Sheepherder**=

**Art Work Identification**
Title:Tibet Series Sheepherder Measurement:80x52cm Creation Year:1980 Technique: oil on wood

Chen Danqing was born in 1953. It wasn’t till 1980s where be became famous for his paintings of Tibetans. Chen has always wanted to be a painter since grade school and the Cultural Revolution provided him a way to do oil paintings because of Chairman Mao's face was in high demand. He was only 14 at that time. He then served on the countryside of Jiangxi Province for five years at the age of sixteen, Chen has seen and experienced first hand the Cultural Revolution.
 * Chen Danqing**

When art finally freed itself from Mao’s propaganda turning to different forms of art particularly the style of European, Chen took the opportunity. In 1976 Chen traveled to Tibet, winning two prizes at a competition for his oil paintings. Tibet became an inspiration for Chen, concentrating on individualism of people. Rather than focusing on Russian Realism, Danqing was inpired and imitated art of French Realist Jean Francois Millet.

One of the paintings he is well known for is "Tibet-Sheepherder". He captures the essence of Tibetans in their everyday lifestlye, a moment where a sheepherder takes to kiss a woman. The Cultural Revolution really enclosed China, sheltering them and shielding them almost from reality. Chen Danqing shocked the country after releasing his painting of Tibetan man and woman in a kiss. This Kiss series was painted by Chen Danqing in his late 20s.

Chen moved to the U.S. in 1982 to New York, he has lived here for 20 years, studied, open galleries for contemporary Chinese artists, and even moved back to China to teach his art form. Chen Danqing stopped his paintings on Tibet. He could not find the inpiration because of New York's advanced city life, and since he left China he could not go back to painting Tibetan lifestyle.


 * Descriptive Analysis**

The Tibet Sheepherder is a type of landscape painting with two people as the subject matter. It is a very earthy colored painting in that it doesn't have a lot of bright unusual colors but earth tones, reds, grays, and browns. The two people are in traditional Tibet outfits. These are also in earth tones, mainly reds. Their skin is dark from the out door lifestyle. The desert landscape in the back suggests a very rustic lifestyle.


 * Formal and Contextual Anaylsis**

Realism is the depiction of subjects in everyday life. It captures everything especially the truth whether it be beautiful or beautiful. It is not the ideal like how things used to be in Romanticism. It originally began in France in 1850 with the introduction of of photography. It is not surprising that after Mao's death people would change and start to see reality. Throughout the Cultural Revolution people already began to see the flaws in the system and how everything was backward instead of moving forward. The situations that people had to live through, the positions people were put in, as well as the work toll on the people and the deaths of the Cultural Revolution opened eyes. It is not surprisng that the once Mao died art changed from propoganda to different styles of art especially Realism. People like Chen Danqing chose show reality and the happinings of China here and now.

Fang, Liu. "Chen Danqing: Live in both world of literature and painting". CCTV International. 04/10/2009 .
 * Bibliography**

"Chen Danqing". China Culture. 04/11/2009 .