Jiang's Early Life
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. In 1964 he earned his Bachelor of Arts
degree. This was the last class to graduate before the
cultural revolution. Jiang also learned about traditional
Chinese art, an influence which would remain with him. Upon
graduation in 1964 Jiang and a small number of other artists
volunteered to go down to the Yunnan province. This turned
out to be a blessing. This beautiful province is on the
Vietnamese border. It is lush and tropical, filled with
exotic flora and fauna,and is home to more than 20 different
minority peoples.
His new home allowed his talents to burst forth. Jiang's
talent was so obvious that from 1966-73 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 release the emotional side of Jiang's nature, and
at night he worked in his small room, on his bed, to create
his own style. The natural beauty of the Yunnan province
inspired him. 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," began.
The Progress of Jiang's Career
Jiang's work quickly gained prominence and even the
repressive authorities had to concede his talent. He became
one of the most well-known illustrators of children's books
in China. In 1974 he illustrated "Two Little Peacocks." In
1976 he designed the animated cartoon of the same book. In
1978, Jiang began to teach as an Associate Professor at the
Yunnan Art Academy, where he would continue until 1983. In
1979, the Chinese Government commissioned him to paint a
mural representing Yunnan Province for the Great Hall of the
People in Beijing. The project took seven months and used
six full panels of silk. This was the "Stone Forest" mural,
one of Jiang's finest works. Jiang himself says: "This mural
was the first time I had ever let my own true style show
publicly. The color, energy, and fantasy of my painting was
not appreciated by the government during Mao's Cultural
Revolution. While I was painting "Stone Forest" an official
came by and said I shouldn't do it that way. I said "Okay"
as if I would change it. But I didn't change a thing. Later
he came back and said "Oh, that's much better." He didn't
know what he was talking about. He was just comforted to
think that he, a government official, had control over this
strange, dangerous art."
For Jiang, success followed success. In 1979 he illustrated
"The Secret of Jinchun Tree," which won the first prize as
the best illustrated book out of Jiangsu Province. His
painting "The Legend of the Water Sprinkling Festival of the
Dai" was featured in the documentary film "Yunnan Scene." In
1980 the illustrated books "Little Red Riding Hood"; "The
Ugly Duckling"; and "A Shi Ma" were published. For "A Shi
Ma" Jiang was awarded Second Place in an international
United Nations competition of illustrated books. In 1981,
Jiang's work was featured in the "10 Artists From Yunnan"
show in Beijing, and then, in 1982, was prominently featured
at a show in Hong Kong, which also featured the Yunnan
artists as well as some of their followers.
But as early as 1981 the Chinese Government had returned to
its repressive policies. Government officials publicly
stated that they feared China was losing its "socialist
morality" and becoming "morally polluted." Art officials
favored a return to Socialist Realism painting and they
expressed their displeasure by refusing to select paintings
by Jiang, Liu Shaohai, or He Neng for the permanent
collection of the National Art Gallery. Jiang was the prime
target of their wrath--his paintings were excluded from
television coverage and a seminar was even officially
organized to criticize his work. His work was criticized as
"...too daring and audacious...a nightmare." Jiang did have
defenders. Liu Shaohai said that he would be glad to have
nightmares every night if he could paint like that. The
President of the Central Academy of Art and Design, Zhang
Ding, wrote an article praising Jiang's work but withdrew it
on the eve of its publication at his wife's urging, who
remembered how Zhang Ding had been beaten and publicly
humiliated during the Cultural Revolution. Even so, Zhang
Ding did on a number of occasions speak out and express his
admiration for Jiang and some of the other young artists.
All of this was making life increasingly difficult for
Jiang. In 1982 a National Geographic reporter who was doing
a story on China saw Jiang's paintings, and brought some
back to the U.S. A friend of the reporter brought them to
the Fingerhut Gallery in Minneapolis, where Jiang's work met
with great success. In 1983, Jiang came to the United States
as part of a cultural exchange program with the University
of Southern California, where he became a visiting Professor
of Art.
Under the sponsorship of Allan Fingerhut, Jiang moved to
Minnesota with his wife Zhaolin. For Jiang, success in
America quickly followed. His rich, strong color, and exotic
but intimate imagery struck an immediate response with the
American public.
Jiang's talent and uniqueness quickly brought his work to
the attention of critics and museum curators nationwide, and
this resulted in many public exhibitions. In 1984, Jiang had
an exhibition at the University of Southern California
Gallery; in 1985 at the New England Center of Contemporary
Art in Connecticut; in 1986 at the Portland Museum in
Virginia; in 1987 at the Springfield Art Center in Ohio; in
1988 at the Connecticut College Art Gallery; in 1989 at the
Museum at Northwestern University in Massachusetts; and in
1990-91 at the Everson Museum in New York; the Springfield
Art Museum in Ohio; the Michelson Reeves Museum in Texas;
the Valdosta Museum at Valdosta State University in Georgia;
the Art & Cultural Center in Florida; and the Olin Fine Art
Center in Pennsylvania. During this period Jiang also had 52
one-man gallery shows in cities all over the country.
Artistic Influences
Traditional Chinese Influences
Modern Western influences played a part in the formation of
the Yunnan school, but traditional Chinese art--such as the
sculpture from the Han Dynasty (221 B.C.-220 A.D.) played by
far the most important role.
The "flung ink" technique.
This method, invented by the ancient zen artists more than
1500 years ago, is the precursor of abstract expressionism.
By flicking the paint of the end of the brush the artists
could create a totally energized surface. This is precisely
what Jackson Pollock rediscovered in the 1940s and 50s. But
the Chinese had always used this technique, and Jiang uses
it masterfully.
The Dunguang Caves
But the greatest Chinese influence was the art created in
the Dunguang caves in central China. In 1907 European
explorers rediscovered the Buddhist caves on the Ancient
Silk Road that led from China through Persia and finally to
the West. At Dunghuang, the last caravan stop with a
plentiful amount of water and supplies before travelers from
China ventured into the perilous Takla Makan desert, the
explorers discovered a group of more than 400 caves with
paintings of extraordinary quality which had been very well
preserved by the dry desert climate. These paintings had
been created over a period of 700 years, from roughly 300 to
1000 AD. They were commissioned as devotional acts by pious
Buddhists: warriors, princes, kings, merchants, peoples from
all walks of life--created in the same spirit as were the
Gothic cathedrals of Europe. But by the 12th century wars
and other geopolitical forces caused the abandonment of the
caves, and they lay forgotten until their rediscovery by the
Europeans in the 20th century.
In 1942, a well-known and respected traditional Chinese
artist Zhang Daqian led an expedition to the caves. He spent
2 1/2 years studying and copying the astounding paintings
there. When his work became available to other artists and
scholars it caused great excitement, for just as African and
Iberian art and the cave paintings of Lascaux had inspired
and liberated Picasso, so the revelation of the free flowing
qualities of line and form and the rich mythic traditions of
the Dunguang cave paintings inspired and liberated the young
Chinese artists. Jiang was particularly moved by the colors,
the linear quality, and the mythic stories of the cave
painting--and we see this in his work. Jiang's colors are of
unsurpassed richness. A colorist, Jiang's intention was to
reverse the trend of the stale Chinese tradition of painting
in gray, black, and white. Jiang says: "Chinese art had
reached a sick level due to its lack of color." Jiang's
credo is: "Long live the Line!" He is a genius at using line
to give the illusion of depth to a flat two-dimensional
surface--almost like an x-ray. Jiang's paintings are like
cubism: by using superb drawing he creates transparency, and
thus he reveals more than one level of reality in each
painting. Jiang is a storyteller. His 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 says "For every picture there is a
story, and for every story there is a picture."
But above all, the cave art was an indigenous Chinese
tradition, a tradition that gave the artists similar
freedoms to those won by the artists in the west, but at the
same time it was a tradition that the artists could freely
pursue without fear of being accused of being Anti-Chinese.
The traditional mythic themes and images, and the rhythmic
flow of the cave art have found their way over and over
again into paintings of Jiang and the other "Yunnan School"
artists.
The influence of the Dunguang imagery and style combined
with European Cubist influences, such as the use of
transparent washes of colors to allow for a multileveled
view of reality, characterize Jiang's work to this day.
Jiang would also incorporate many of these traditional
Chinese folkloric images into his art.
Jiang's Popularity
What is the secret of Jiang's popularity?
Jiang's colors are of unsurpassed richness. A colorist,
Jiang's intention was to reverse the trend of the stale
Chinese tradition of painting in gray, black, and white.
Jiang says: "Chinese art had reached a sick level due to its
lack of color."
Jiang's use of imagery. As noted above, Jiang is a
storyteller. His 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
says "For every picture there is a story, and for every
story there is a picture."
Jiang's vision has continued to grow and expand. Probably
because of his personal experience in two cultures he has
increasingly seen the world as a single system, as a meeting
place of diverse forces. This is reflected in the number of
environmental and ecologic themes which have recently begun
appearing in his work, notably in such pieces as "Nature
Suite," "Genesis," "Lovers Trees," and "My World."
The secret and essence of Jiang's work is best expressed by
the artist himself:
"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."
