CHINA: Chinese peasant painters bring colours of countryside life to the world.

Simple and colourful peasant paintings bring scenes of Chinese farming and country life to the world. Art is larger than life at this village more than a hour's drive from China's commercial centre of Shanghai. Huge painted frescos adorning the walls of these houses greet visitors to the Jinshan Peasant Painters' Village. They feature neither Renoirs nor Picassos but simple and colourful paintings which have created a style of its own on the Chinese art scene. This is the hub for the peasant painters of Jinshan, a creative space featuring and inspiring their works of art. It's early morning and 52-year-old Cao Xiuwen is here to complete her latest work - a painting featuring a happy and bountiful harvest in the fields. It is with such simple themes, that of the daily countryside life, that the Jinshan peasant paintings appeal to the masses. Cao belongs to the first generation of peasant painters from Jinshan, a district in the larger Shanghai municipality which is mainly an agricultural region. She replaced her plough with the paintbrush more than three decades ago when she blossomed as a peasant painter at the district's art academy in the mid 1970s. "Back then, when I was learning painting at the academy, most of the students were intellectuals like Zhu Xi. There were mostly young intellectuals, those with a farming background like myself, were very few. I felt there were very good at learning how to paint. So I did not dare to paint, only when the teacher went for his morning exercise, did I secretly try to paint. When the teacher saw what I have painted after he came back, he clapped his hands and said well done. He asked how did a young girl from a farming background paint so well?" said Cao. Cao's works have since won her awards and accolades in the local art scene and her husband also later joined her to become a peasant painter. Today, with a 10 million yuan (U.S. 1.25 million dollars) government funding and the setting up of the painting village, the peasant painters of Jinshan are getting more space and time to develop painting as their full-time profession. The village features an art museum and also doubles as a tourist destination for visitors to the area. With their bold colours, intricate brushstrokes and humble beginnings, Jinshan peasant painting is also eyeing a spot on the international art scene. Staff at the Jinshan Peasant Painting Academy have been actively promoting the art through exhibitions in Japan, the United States and Europe during the past few years. Zhu Xi, the deputy director of the academy, says the Jinshan peasant painting has stood its ground with a style of its own despite its short history compared to other forms of Chinese paintings. Traditional forms of folk art like embroidery, paper folding and paper cutting has had huge influences on the origins of the style of the Jinshan peasant paintings. "As a matter of fact, if we say that peasant painting does not have a long history, we should also go back and look at our ancestors. There was already a form of peasant art in the past, so what we ask now is how to pass this on to other generations and spread it to others. For example, the colours we use for peasant painting are very beautiful and vibrant, and they reflect the life of a modern farmer. This was not present in the past. Back then, paintings mostly reflected on the life of nobility or superstitious things. The theme has changed now to reflect the life of the farmer, so our artists will manifest this in their paintings." said deputy director of Jinshan Peasant Painting Academy Zhu Xi. Zhu added their paintings have been selling very well during exhibitions overseas and the academy has set up a website for people to order their art. For a younger generation of peasant painters like 37-year-old Lu Yongzhong, art has become a way to share Chinese culture with the world. Lu has enjoyed much success with his paintings after he produced a 15-metre long peasant painting scroll that merited a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records a few years ago. He said he is happy and eager to promote Jinshan peasant paintings on the international art circuit. "Foreigners are very interested in Chinese art. They are interested in Jinshan peasant painting because the art form is close to life and they can see and understand peasant life from the paintings." said 37-year-old peasant painter Lu Yongzhong. And for Lu, art has also become a way to come back to his farming origins. He has since invested the money he earned from his paintings to build two farms of his own in Jinshan. One is a peach tree farm and the other, which is still under construction, is one he hopes can become his very own artist's farm lodge - a bed and breakfast where visitors can enjoy both his paintings and his harvest.

ITN Source | February 10, 2007

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