I was told by Chen Shuxia that I should stick to theoriginal if appreciating her paintings. So I wentto her works exhibited in National Art Museum ofChina. Before that I only saw her painting album.In the museum, I was surprised by the number ofworks she exhibited that she was quite a diligentpainter though a low-pitched with little words asshe was. A diligent painter means that he or shehas the impulse to express, means that he or she isconfident in his or her creativity.
　　Viewing the original works is really different fromviewing the prints. First difference is the size. ChenShuxia’s paintings are neither big nor small. Thereis a triptich taking up the whole wall. Also anotherseries of head portraits of girls named FashionFaces covers also the whole wall in width if hangedhorizontally. The size of paintings (as well as flatsmearing and accumulating of paints) affects ourunderstanding of the painting works. So what doesthis indicate?
　　Since Walter Benjamin on The Work of Art in theAge of its Technical Reproducibility in 1936, therehave been two groups of artists stressing up thedifference between original works and prints andartists regardless of the difference of the originalworks and prints against each other. The formerdefends for the craft and style. For craft new ideasare always emerging and style can be distinctiveas well, but their unwavering concept of craft andstyle can last for ever.
　　However, we can not define what kind of artist ChenShuxia is simply by the some existing concepts.In painting, she cares about the girls’ faces,pears on the desk, clouds, lake water, mountainssurrounding the water, boat on the lake, fishermanin suit in the boat, as well as one or two birds in thewater. Usually, those objects take up the center ofthe canvas, while the vast world they are replyingon is omited into just solid color, strikingly coveringthe huge canvas.
　　As far as we know, oil painting is something easilyto be“ grand”, which is related to the brush, kife,canvas, paints and frame used. Meanwhile, theconcept basis supporting oil painting as a kindof painting category is also “grand”. However,Chen Shuxia has no interest in the grand effect oftraditional oil painting. Her randomicity helps to“find” her own oil painting. Then the randomicityand delicacy meet the word “orient”, but neverintentionally.
　　If there must be a word to describe Chen Shuxia’spainting, it is “poetic”. She makes this wordself-update to accommodate her paintings. Theviewers on the site may easily feel somethingbeautiful, quiet, self-sufficient and free. Amongt hos e paint er s of t he new generat ion wit hworks commonly flaunted as cynical, intranquil,dangerous, angry, satiric, bad and ugly, there is noplace for Chen Shuxia. She just shows off nothing,nor intentionally.
　　The Monkey King (Sun Wukong) made a circle toprotect Monk Tang, Piggy and Monk Sha. So doesChen Shuxia, but the difference is that she makesthe circle for herself to jump into. Unless she walksherself out, otherwise, all evils can never break intoit. She is not an iconic painter (though she has herown icons), neither a language painter (though sheuses her own language), it seems that we can sayher an emotional painter, owning a set of place.It is easy to catch her paintings at the first sight,which is right her success. Relying on a kind of mildstubbornness--- toughly caring about subtle things,surrounding things and daily things---she makesher paintings stand out of people independently.Her care for daily things is the trend of the times,but what she cares for are smaller, which only thefairly confident people can make.
　　Generally speaking, daily lif e is somethingrepetitive. Romantic and passionate life is first tofight against frightening and repetitive one. But itseems that Chen Shuxia found her way to overcomesuch kind of fright. She made herself focus onthe repetiveness of life, which reflecting in thepaintings is that she gained the single repetition ofthe decorated objects. She entered into this kind ofrepetitiveness and then represented it interestingly.There are two points to be noted here. First, in her“repetition” there is a small variation, appearinglike the repetitive objects, but still somethingdifferent, seemingly repeting every second andevery minute before, but different. There is asubtle view of time cont ained here. Second,Chen Shuxia’s life details shown are replacedby painting details, that is to say, life details arealtered to serve the painting itself in the painting.It seems to be a little different from her own pointof view. The Art Circles magazine ever publishedher talks with novelist Zhu Wenying in March andApril issue of 2004, in which Chen Shuxia said:“ Inmy opinion, ‘painting’ and ‘living’ are synonym,the line between them either clear or vague. ”Fortunately, the difference is not so significant. Shecan rather say that painting is a kind of life style,in which painting and living co-exist with eachother, compromising to each other, also opposite toeach other. But actually she is not a person fancy ofopposite.
　　Her care for subtlety and limited things is basedon her understanding of the fundamental issue“existence”. In the ar ticle The Existence ofthe Pear, she said: “No matter how nonsense itexists, it does exist. Therefore, except the passivemeanings, there is still another meaning, that isthe existence.” I was a little surprised to readsuch words. You can say that she tried to makea big deal out of, you can also apply it to anyunconspicuous things and people.
　　I am not sure whether her care for limited things isout of consciousness or nature. Maybe somethingbegan first with nature, but then with a kind ofconsciousness. Some people are eager to locatethemselves into infinite life, while Chen Shuxiaseems to lead thoroughly the limited life. Inanother word, she unconsciously denies the credoof“ life elsewhere”, or she leads her life“ here” aslife“ elsewhere”.
　　Either “here” or “elsewhere”, life representedby Chen Shuxia seems to be either now and here,or far way. Just like her painting language, eitherrepresentational or abstract; also her quietnessshown in the paintings, either surrounding us orwithout our reach. It is the life between reality andirreality that leads to the painting between realityand irreality.
　　Therefore, in Chen Shuxia’s paintings, there is nospecific theme, just as there is no need of themefor tiny existence. In this aspect, Chen Shuxia’spaintings are non-historic. She removes expressionsof people, landscape, plant and animals. Thoughit was also practical to remove expressions inancient Chinese painting to realize the dream of“surpassing”, Chen Shuxia still secretly keep herown joyance while removing those expressions.
　　Chen Shuxia removes her own “expressions” whileremoving the expressions of objects, which makeshere different from other artists also caring fordaily life. Normally when one uses daily life asart materials, he or she may follow a route of“autobiographical writing”. But Chen Shuxiashows another kind of attitude towards dailylife. She refuses that kind of “autobiographicalwriting”. She shows that “I” through a kind of“anti-autobiography” demonstration before us.
　　Does this imply a kind of dissatisfaction with thecultural environment and art context? If does,then Chen Shuxia’s dissatisfaction is shown inan extremely restricted way. In an article namedCare for Life, Chen Shuxia said: “My work andenjoyment is that part of life I deserve”, whichshown a little sweet flavor of predestination (whichis normally from feeling bitter and pained towardsgiving up ). Maybe this kind of sweet predestinationjust balances her secret dissatisfaction.27 April, 2006
 

作者：Xi,Chuan