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Obituary: Chen Yifei, 59, Chinese landscape painter
and business leader
By Alexandra A. Seno International Herald Tribune
Tuesday, April 12, 2005 HONG KONG Chen Yifei, modern China's most famous artist-turned-tycoon, died unexpectedly Sunday in a Shanghai hospital. He was 59. . He was hospitalized April 6 after suffering from stomach pains and was reported by a business associate to have died of gastric hemorrhage. Xinhua, the national Chinese news agency, gave the cause of death as a stomach ulcer "reported to be caused by work-related stress." . Chen made his mark parlaying his international fame as a painter of romantic landscapes and portraits into a lifestyle-brands empire bearing his own name. . Chen, who was always nattily dressed and full of ideas, saw himself as an impresario of the visual arts in an emerging China. In a 2002 interview about his career and the myriad enterprises he was creating, he said that before, "all China cared about was that people could eat and read. With the new system, socialism with market economy, China has become more international. This is my duty as an artist in this century: to provide beauty for the people." . Aside from being one of China's best-known oil painters, he helped decorate Shanghai's iconic Grand Hyatt Hotel, created a fashion label, a homeware line and lifestyle magazines. He also started what was to become the mainland's biggest modeling agencies. . "Chen Yifei became someone to emulate for a lot of people who had become financially successful in China," said the Hong Kong-based art curator Johnson Chang. "He reflected the aspirations of China today. His own art in the last 10 years exploited the vision of romance of the decadent old Shanghai and a life of pleasure." . Chen was born in 1946 in Zhejiang Province. In the 1960s, he attended a prestigious government art academy in Shanghai, quickly becoming known among China's influential circles for his moving "patriotic" paintings, scenes of revolutionaries fighting for Communism. . In the 1980s, he was sent abroad for further training, earning a masters in arts at New York's Hunter College in 1984. . While in the United States, Chen channeled his Communist academy style of realism into canvases depicting beautiful rural landscapes and idealized Chinese female pulchritude. One of his early patrons was the late Armand Hammer, the American industrialist and an important international contemporary art collector. . . .: Forum Diskusi Budaya Tionghua dan Sejarah Tiongkok :. .: Kunjungi website global : http://www.budaya-tionghoa.org :. .: Untuk bergabung : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/budaya_tionghua :. .: Jaringan pertemanan Friendster : [EMAIL PROTECTED] :. Yahoo! Groups Links
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