Jiang TiefengFor a detailed view and pricing information, click on a title. About Jiang Tiefeng: The colors of Jiang Tiefeng are of unsurpassed richness. As a colorist, Jiang's intention was to reverse the trend of the stale Chinese tradition of painting in gray, black, and white. Jiang is a storyteller, whose paintings are steeped in Buddhist and Chinese mythology. Each figure has a symbolic meaning. The paintings have so much complexity and visual fascination that the viewer is constantly seeing something new.Jiang was born in 1938, in Ningbo, Zhejiiang Province, in China. Even as a child, he displayed a great love and talent for painting and drawing, and early on he knew the course his life would take. In 1959, in a highly competitive exam, he won admission to the prestigious Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. From 1962-64 he studied with the famous Chinese artist Huang Yong-yu, who first exposed him to the paintings from the Dunguang caves; he also learned about traditional Chinese art, an influence which would remain with him. In 1964, as part of the last class to graduate before the Cultural Revolution, Jiang earned his Bachelor of Arts degree. Upon graduation, he and a small number of other artists volunteered to go down to the Yunnan province. Jiang's talent was so obvious that from 1966 to 73, the Chinese government assigned him to produce "Socialist Realism" propaganda posters and sculptures during the Cultural Revolution; he even painted the famous large red-faced poster of Chairman Mao. But this sterile exercise did nothing to satisfy the emotional side of Jiang's nature, and at night, inspired by the natural beauty of the Yunnan province, he worked on the bed in his small room to create his own style. With two other artists, He Neng and Liu Shaohui, Jiang secretly formed the nucleus of what was first called the "Heavy Colorist" school and is now known as the "Yunnan School."  Jiang says,
"For every picture there is a story, and for every story there is a picture. An artist is not a photographer; my work is my understanding of life. It is difficult for me to remember what distances I have traveled, how many mountains I have climbed, how many rivers I have crossed, and how many villages I have passed through. I can only recall the countless joyous moments and hardships of the past years from the many pictures I have painted. My deep love of the colorful earth and for Xishuangbanna, a region of the Yunnan Province, has encouraged me to explore and create unceasingly. Such a mysterious land blessed with unique beauty offers innumerable subjects to be painted. My paintings are not only pictures: they are also music and poetry that is bewitching, sweet dreams that are being dreamed."   |
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