Shen Jiawei (Australia)

?Spain 1937 / 2011-2012 / oil on canvas / 220cm×300cm

Appreciation: The Spanish Civil War(1936-1939) is a war against the Nazi rebels in Spain and armed intervention of the German and Italian Fascism. Back then, many international Anti-Fascist celebrities are with the Spanish people.Spanish 1937, an oil painting by a Chinese Australian artist Shen Jiawei presents all the international Anti-Fascism celebrities who support the Spanish Civil War all together by means of surrealism: Bethune,George Orwell, Neruda, Hemingway, Malraux, Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, Evans, Julian Bell and etc. They are all on a jeep with Picasso’s Guernica on it, being a member of the fight with their own weapons.The portraits in the oil painting are so vivid that it would be taken as an old photo, which makes the distant and obscure past become the close and distinct present.

Shen Jiawei was born in Shanghai in 1948 and graduated from Central Academy of Fine Arts. He is a professional artist now. He has participated in the National Art Exhibitions, Beijing for several times, “China: 5000 years”, Guggenheim Museum, N.Y. USA and Bilbao, Spain,Chinese Oil Painting in the 20th century,Beijing, the 1st and the 2nd Beijing International Art Biennale and so on.