Chan Yu-Fan’s Bizarre Idea in Ancient Painting

Chan Yu-Fan Prints Exhibition 1/12-3/31

The ancient classic paintings are valuable in that they often show their historical background and cultural meanings. In addition to leaving marks for history, they also provide nutrients for creation in later generations. The contemporary artist Chan Yu-Fan recently launched a series of six sets of enamel prints, paying tribute to the ancient masters of art, and also adding the thinking of his own background, injecting contemporary meaning into classical paintings.

The six sets of works are from Chan's "Fusion into Ancient Times" series. The artist used four artists from the Renaissance to the Baroque period, including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Diego Velazquez and Jan Vermeer's classic paintings, with the background of the characters in the famous paintings and the research of the meaning of the paintings, the animals in the works are replaced by the characters in the original characters, and the classical paintings are reinterpreted in a humorous and witty way, as well as endowed with the meaning of contemporary art. For example, the artist misappropriated Velasquez’s “Infanta Margarita Teresa in a White Dress”, and from the fluffy, three-dimensional dress of the 5-year-old princess, the artist linked the scenario of the king penguin’s move to protect the penguin in the painting “The Penguin Princess”, and the appearance of little penguin hiding at the feet of the parents during the cold gives the work a different meaning to this painting.

The first print of Chan is "A Mink Girl Who Holds a Mink Doll." He used Leonardo da Vinci's "The Lady with an Ermine" as a template to let the ermine replace the lady holding the ermine, while the ermine hand held the ermine doll, revealing the same firm expression as the original lady. In Da Vinci's original work, the ermine hinted at the girl's strong personality. Chan chose to directly make ermine, became the protagonist of the painting, showing its own unique aura and firm attitude, and also connecting the relationship between the original and his works with a sense of humor.

The cute faces of the animals in the works alleviate the sense of seriousness and ambiguity in the classical paintings, and bring a contemporary humorous atmosphere to the classical paintings, making people smile. The rich colors and details of the presentation also injected a sense of dynamism into the prints. The four unique stencil symbols attached to the work also contain the meaning of the artist's creation of this series.

Chan was born in Taipei in 1983. He graduated from the Fine Arts Department of the National Taiwan University of Arts and post graduated from Fine Arts of National Taiwan Normal University in 2002 and 2006. Chan studied classical painting at an early age. He is good at using classical techniques to create an atmosphere, re-arranging people and things in the real world, and constructing a self-contained narrative style.

(Exhibition Ended)

Curator: YiCOLLECTA