Hilo Chen (b. Yilan, Taiwan) is one of the most important living artists working in photorealism. He began his artistic career in abstraction and was the youngest member of the Ton Fan Group, the first Chinese Modern Art group. In 1968, Chen saw The Bather of Valpinçon by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres at the Louvre, an encounter that deeply inspired him. His practice later moved into figurative painting.
Read MoreChen's most notable Beach series began in the 1970s. The series established his artistic stature in New York which is on par with other photorealism masters like Chuck Close. Chen's work can be found in the collections of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, San José Museum of Art, Newport Art Museum, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.
Before leaving Taiwan, Chen was certain he would devote himself to portraiture, having gradually relinquished his studies in abstraction. In the last Ton Fan Group exhibition in 1967, Chen showed only one painting, that of a grey, blue eye, which belonged to his French girlfriend. He later met another Taiwanese artist, Peng Wan Chih, in Paris and found, inextricably, that they were both eager to paint eyes or people with eyes. 'As an Easterner who has come to the West, it is my desire to know the world or even see through it. That is why my later realistic paintings are not about merely a person with a pair of eyes. They are more to do with how these eyes perceive the people and world around them.' Chen said.
Chen lives and works in New York, USA.
Text courtesy Each Modern.