Lot 1065: CHANG CHEN-YU

CHANG CHEN-YU
(Born in 1957)
Chessing
signed and dated 'Chen-Yu; 92' in Chinese (lower left)
oil on canvas
99 x 146 cm. (38 x 57 1/2 in.)
Painted in 1992

Chen-Yu Chang Restrospect on Neo-Humanism 1975-1994, exh. cat., Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, 1994, plate 43. (illustrated)

Private Collection, Asia

"Any real 'local consciousness' should be the reaction of a free individual, concerned with their surrounding environment and facing reality with a spirit of humanity. The avant-garde spirit means being free and autonomous, facing the truth of your surrounding social environment and rebelling against the stagnant order of things without fear of isolation or hardship." -Chang Chen-Yu


Chang's Looking Back (Lot 1067), Period Under Martial Law (Lot 1066) and Chessing (Lot 1065), are the artist's finest works on themes of truth and humanistic awareness. Chang's structuring of his subjects reveal a nakedly direct vision, challenging traditional aesthetic morality against the authority of his role as an artist.

In Looking Back, a lady is portrayed in the nude. Her disheveled hair and wrapped arms hunched over in a squatting position convey a mixed sense of fear and longing, yearning to hold the gaze of the viewer, at the same time scared to fully reveal herself. The absence of a background strengthens the static image of the woman, fully expressing themes of desire, estrangement and isolation.

Partial disrobing of a woman in Period Under Martial Law continues to express a woman's vulnerability and fragility. Her full lips and hungry gaze tilts towards someone, as if waiting to be penetrated, yet the book in her hand suggests that she is unable to concentrate on either act. Such expression of nudity and lack of focus may be Chang's euphemism for the White Terror that plagued Taiwan during its turbulent history.

In Chessing, two women are playing a game of weiqi, naked and completely at ease. With no awareness of an audience, their relaxed selves better reveal the sensuous contours and musculature of the body. The concealed canvas positioned at the back is a subtle reminder of the artistic restrictions placed following Taiwan's February 28th incident. In contrast, After Last Supper (Lot 1068) acts as an explicit expose on the savagery and brutality of the same period, expressed through the dispassionate tearing and extraction of the flesh from a half-human, half-beast carcass. This animalistic mutilation is executed with the skills of a butcher, with varying looks of dread, indifference and fear, further confirming the role of these men as mere apparatus rather than masterminds behind this whole act. Symbolically, we are ambivalent as to whether reconciliation can be achieved after such brutal sacrifices have been made.

Chang's surreal, dreamlike depictions are a telling and incisive examination of inner personal conflicts and contradictions. He addresses the use of nudity as mere judgments of taste rather than a code of morality. In all of the works presented here we are invited to investigate the subjects' inner thoughts and traumas, yet sadness pervades, and their dispassionate eyes make it almost impossible to pierce any deeper for the truth.