1980 marks the turning point for Realism in China. It was a time when artists unshackled themselves from ideology, returning to realism as the means art through which to portray the country and its daily life, such a humble and simple move that it masks the ways in which New Chinese Realism became the primary movement leading an exploration of the spirit of the times, revealing individual artistic and philosophical musings, and even the existential state and emotional impulses beneath the ordinary lives of the nation. Their works opened up a new direction for creation, emphasizing humanistic concerns and developing an entirely new iteration of modern realism. Chen was one of the representative pioneers of these artists. Among his contemporaries in the early 1980s, Chen was the first to have a solo exhibition in the United States. His Tibetan Series is often read in parallel with Luo Zhongli's Father as the formative milestone of New Realism in China, a fusion of Western modernism, but whose direction took root in the native culture and historical background of China. The artistic and historical value of these paintings by Chen and Luo then was comparable to that of Millet's The Gleaners and Van Gogh's Potato Eaters.

Created during the late 1970s to the 1980s, the Tibetan Series is Chen Danqing's important creation and also a milestone in China's modern artistic development. The Mother and Children(Lot 1130), Tibetan Village(Lot 1131) and Lady Washing Hair (Lot 1192) are his most creative output from the Tibetan Series.

During the Cultural Revolution, Chen, then merely a secondary school student, was sent to work in the countryside in the south of Jiangxi Province. Interested in painting he would paint with pen and paper after work, gradually cultivating himself into a self-taught painter. It was not until 1974 that his fabulous works were displayed in exhibition and highly praised, thereafter he was admitted to the master's programme at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. In 1976, in search of inspiration, he traveled to Tibet, from where he brought back portraits telling of Tibetans' daily life rituals instead of paintings depicting politically influenced images.

The works of Girl from Qamdo County (Lot 1193), Man with Bright Eyes (Lot 1194), Young Lady with Headdress (Lot 1195) are fine examples of Chen's realistic paintings are rich in ethnic, cultural and hometown features, profoundly impacting the perpetually popular yet extremely doctrinal thematic-creation-model, bringing a new realm to the China's art scene of the 1980s. Humanistic sentiments and integral strength are the primary artistic themes of Chen's works, which are also the natural realization of his own sentiments and integrity, the revelation of his own experiences and his profound understanding of and sympathy and respect for the grass-root people. This insight into human sentiments and veracity has given his works glorious and lofty meaning, marking Chen's artistic endeavors as an important milestone in China's modern art development.