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Veteran Chinese painter Zhou Shaohua donated 46 of his works to
the National Art Museum of China last Friday.
These works along with a further 70 other works he has produced
over the past years are on show at the museum at an exhibition
running through Wednesday.
The self-made artist was born in 1929 in east China's Shandong
Province and lost his parents at an early age. In 1941, he joined
the Shandong branch of the Eighth Route Army fighting against
Japanese invaders during the War of Resistance against Japanese
Aggression (1937-45).
In 1949, he left the army and settled down in Wuhan, capital of
Central China's Hubei Province and began to study the art of
Chinese painting.
Shunning the mild and delicate style of the 700-year old Chinese
wenrenhua, or "literati paintings," the artist has experimented
with centuries-old Chinese ink painting, drawing from both the
ancient art of the Han (206 BC-AD 220) and Tang (618-907) dynasties
and contemporary Western art from the early 1980s.
His best-known works are imposing landscapes of northwestern
China that are defined by novel compositions and unrestrained color
and brushwork.
Other works of his are characterized by scenes similar to those
found in ancient Chinese brick and stone carvings, pottery
figurines, ritual and funeral sculptures, murals, Buddhist images
and lines from the Buddhist sutras.
(China Daily December 20, 2005)
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