Art Collector, Diana

#97025     32″ X 24″     giclee on canvas

Dressing up in one’s favorite clothes, admiring one’s art collection and taking photos as souvenirs are all simple pleasures in life. In this painting, Princess Diana stands in a dimly lit living room in the company of masterpieces, and under the brown candlelight, the lovely lady becomes an artwork herself.

Under closer attention, we recognize not only the “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (c. 1665-1666) by Vermeer but the Dutch chair of about the same age, as well as the curtain behind Diana, also by Vermeer. The bouquet and fruits in front of Diana look like everyday objects, but upon examination, we discover that they are in fact, a combination of Cezanne’s “Flowers in a Blue Vase” (1873-75 ) and “Still Life with Curtains” (1898-99). The delicately decorated gown in “satin Duchesse” with pearls, flowers, and leaves in gold worn by the Princess was originally in milky-white. Yet for the harmony of the whole picture, Dr. Chen tinted the gown an amber yellow.

At first glance, this picture looks like an ordinary aspect of a family living room; yet it is a combination of five masterpieces from Western art enhanced with the presence of Diana. Under Chen’s brush, the compassionate Princess Diana has become a collector of artwork, which would probably win the admiration of her husband, Prince Charles, who is also very fond of art.

“Quotation” and “appropriation” are essential elements for Post-modern expression. It’s the technique of “reconstruction” after “deconstruction;” an aesthetic expression of our “recycling age,” an aspect of “computer art” in an information age. Dr. T. F. Chen established his “Five-dimensional Universal Culture” theory in 1969 in Paris, and “Neo-Iconography” is the application of such theory in artistic expressions, an avant-garde of Post-Modern culture. Under Dr. Chen’s brush, Princess Diana becomes post-modernized and merged into art history.

by T. F. and Julie Chen