A portrait of
WEN, LIVE EVENT SKETCH ARTIST, by Peer Krischbin
The Monty Python line “I like Chinese, cause they only come up to your knees” certainly does not describe Wen. But let us go back to the beginning. Born in China in the Year of the Monkey, near the end of the Cultural Revolution, he discovered his love of drawing as a boy. For a few yuan, he sketched travellers waiting for trains and earned a little pocket money.
At seventeen, he visited Robert Rauschenberg’s solo exhibition in Beijing on a school trip. He became fascinated by Andy Warhol and deeply impressed by Joseph Beuys. Before turning twenty, with 250 dollars in his pocket, he spent 100 dollars on a Trans-Siberian Railway ticket and travelled through Mongolia, Siberia and Russia to Moscow, then onwards to Berlin and Düsseldorf. From his window seat, Wen drew the passing landscapes and sold the sketches to fellow travellers.
His ambition to study at the Düsseldorf Art Academy was not fulfilled immediately. He moved to Cologne, stayed in a youth hostel, worked for a while as a kitchen assistant in a Chinese restaurant and developed his portfolio. On the square beside Cologne Cathedral he met an artist advertising portraits in twenty minutes. Wen answered with a six-minute sign. His speed attracted many customers and supported him through the summer.
In 1993 he successfully applied to the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he studied painting until 1999 and graduated as a Meisterschüler. Throughout his studies he continued drawing portraits in the lively centres of Paris, London, Berlin and even New York.
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Artistic work
In 2023, Wen taught intensive seminars as a guest lecturer at Hochschule Düsseldorf.
In Haikou, China, Wen has worked as a guest professor at a renowned art university.
At the historic water tower in Krefeld, where Wen lives and works, he also offers drawing courses.
Culinary ventures
After graduating, Wen opened three highly regarded restaurants in Düsseldorf:
ROTE LATERNE, named after the Chinese film Raise the Red Lantern;
BÖSER CHINESE, accompanied by recordings of Mao Zedong’s speeches; and
KONKUBINE, Düsseldorf’s first non-smoking restaurant.
