Widewalls is an online art gallery that features tens of thousands of works from established artists as well as those emerging onto the contemporary art scene.  Regarding Chen Danqing, Widewalls provides an in-depth biography and sophisticated collection of works, as well as numerous exhibitions and auction results.  Unlike most other sites that I have visited in my investigation of Chen thus far, the biography provided offers knowledge about Chen during his youthful, formative, and early adult years, all in the unique context of art and his most profound influencers.  Not only does the site provide a unique biographic perspective for Chen, but offers the insight and experiences of others, including a former pupil of Chen who admiringly claims that “Chen has never been just a painter.  He was an intellectual with a social conscience” (Cuddy 2014, Widewalls).  The exhibition and auction result sections of the site also give viewers comprehensive analysis into the prices which his pieces have sold for as well as where he has published and displayed his art.

Widewalls as a source will provide me with a unique and holistic lens to continue analyzing Chen Danqing as a person as well as an artist.  With extensive information on where Chen has published his work for exhibitions as well as auction results, the site will allow me to understand who his target audience is, if he indeed has one, and who these auctioneers may be and where their interests lie.  Moreover, the anecdotes and information provided by the biography will provide me with a more sophisticated foundation to understand the roots of Chen’s realist yet alternative technique of painting.

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Works Cited

Cuddy, Dylan. “Chen Danqing.” Widewalls, 2014. Accessed April 30, 2020.

https://www.widewalls.ch/artist/chen-danqing/