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Walsh Library Gallery
presents

Politics in Art

About the Artists

Lee So-Ji
Born in Chong, Chongpukdo, Korea. Lee So-Ji works in the footsteps of the past. His lithographs reflect traditional Asian style and show the customs of the past, despite rapid modernization throughout his homeland. Lee's works have been shown in numerous exhibitions in Japan, Korea, and the United States over the last thirty years.

Wang Zhenghua
Wang Zhenghua graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing in 1961. Since then he has had a successful career as a painter and art professor. Professor Wang has gained acclaim for both his early realist paintings as well as his more recent work in romantic abstraction, winning numerous awards. His The Remaining Years won one of the only fifteen awards of excellence in the
First Exhibition of Chinese Oil Paintings in 1987. Professor Wang's work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in China and abroad. Recently, his work has been shown at the Oriental Gallery, New York; the Art House Gallery, San Francisco; and is entered in The Great Exhibition of Oil Painting of the Century 2000, Beijing.

Zhang Hongtu
Zhang Hongtu studied at the Central Institute of Arts and Craft (BA, 1969) in Beijing and the Art Students League, New York (1982-1986). Zhang remained in school until 1973 during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). In addition to his studies, he spent time traveling in China and in 1982, came to study in New York. Since then Zhang's work has changed significantly from the semi-abstract early style seen in this exhibition to the "Material Mao" series shown at the Bronx Museum of Art in 1995-1996. His work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions and publications, most recently in New Painting, the Cheryl McGinnis Gallery New York; Repaint Chinese Shan Shui Painting, Yale University; and Lineage, d.u.m.b.o. Arts Center, Brooklyn, New York.

Luo Gongliu
Luo Gongliu was born in Guandang in 1916. He was trained in painting at the Hangzhou National Art Academy and the Lu Xun Art Academy in the 1930s. After 1949 he was appointed to the Administrative staff that made policy for the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where he made substantial contributions to the development of its oil painting program.

Luo Gongliu undertook advanced study at the Repin Art Academy between 1955 and 1958. He directed the history painting campaign of 1961. In 1996 there was a retrospective on his work at the Yanhuang Art Museum, Beijing, China. Following the model of Soviet Socialist Realism Luo Gongliu has created powerful historical paintings. Not only do they glorify the image of Mao, but they also instill pride in a nation in the midst of turmoil and change.

Muli Tang
Muli Tang was born in Shanghai, China in 1947. Muli Tang began drawing and painting at an early age. He taught himself to draw while studying art books. He received his formal education at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where he earned a master's degree in 1980. He earned his second master's degree in 1984 from the Royal Academy of Art in London. In 1983, he was named by the Peter Moore Foundation as one of the fifteen most outstanding artists in the United Kingdom. He has been a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Art 1980-81 and a visiting professor and artist-in-residence at Cornell University (1985-89). The university commissioned and permanently displays many of his large-scale paintings. He continues to be exhibited and collected by many institutions. He has been particularly productive in portraiture for outstanding figures in many fields. He and his family currently reside in Montreal, Canada.

Muli Tang has traveled through nearly thirty countries to study masterpieces, famous scenery and native culture. These experiences resulted in the development of a graceful style and impeccable skill. One senses from his art not only a love for life and nature, but also a pursuit of perfection and sensibility. His beautiful images of China relate this love and keen sense of nature. His glimpses of the common man and woman bring us closer to the heart of a nation previously exotic and distant. These personal portraits tell of a universality and beauty in all of nature's gifts.

Wang Yufung
This oil on canvas depiction of Chairman Mao painted by Wang Yufung in 1968 is characteristic of the Socialist Realism style being produced by Chinese artists during the Cultural Revolution. In this scene Mao Zedong is shown as a larger than life figure in an agricultural setting dressed as one of the people. Great emphasis was placed on figure painting during the 1950's and 1960's.

Xu Wenhua
Xu Wenhua graduated from the Shanghai Academy of Drama in 1979 and worked as an instructor of Industrial Design until 1985. In 1986, Xu moved to New York City and continued working as an artist. His work has been shown in many exhibitions internationally, and he has received many prestigious awards in his home country and internationally. His works are held in the collection of The Fine Arts Museum of China in Beijing.

One of Xu's paintings was featured on the cover of Time magazine on April 29, 1991. The original drawings of Xu's posters (shown in this exhibit) have been copied multiple times and circulated in some of the most remote areas of China. Posters were used to communicate political messages as well as to entertain.

Zhang Mingji
From the age of five in the City of Dongsheng, Mongolia, where he was born in 1952, Zhang Mingji has been putting his artistic talents to work. He received his first award when he was eight for a painting entitled Cat of My Family. His first picture and poetry book, The Half Bowl of Water, was published in 1972. Thanks to the book's success, the Inner Mongolian People's Publishing House employed Zhang Mingji as an art editor. He graduated from the Tianjing Art Institute in 1978. That same year, he enrolled in the oil painting department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Bejing, where he received a Master's degree in 1980, remaining at the Academy as a lecturer.

In 1984 he immigrated to Australia and was awarded an Australia-China Council grant for a painting project entitled Life in Australia in 1985. In 1989 Zhang Mingji moved to the United States and enrolled at New York University for his Ph.D. He currently resides in New York.

In the paintings of Zhang Mingji we see a new freedom emerge from a classical background. The influence of European classical and surrealist masters is evident in his style. His subject matter gives us a view of a creative mind unleashed in a world full of stimulation and unending avenues to explore. It is in this new freedom that Zhang Mingji can express his unique philosophy of life.

Ai Xuan
Ai Xuan, was born in Hebei Province in 1947 to a literary family. His father was Ai Qing, one of China's most prominent poets. He began his art training after enrolling at the Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts Preparatory School in 1963. The Cultural Revolution began shortly before his graduation in 1967 and interrupted further formal training. From 1969 to 1973, he served on a military farm in Tibet. After 1973, he was stationed in Chengdu as an artist and was able to devote himself to his art. While stationed in the border region in the mid-1970s he created propaganda art.

Since 1980 Ai Xuan's paintings have been exhibited six times in the Chinese National Exhibition. His work won the silver medal in the Second National Youth Exhibition of 1981. In 1986, he participated in the Second Asian Art Exhibition in Japan and the Eighth National Salon in Paris, in which he received an honorable mention. In 1987, he moved to the United States, where his works received great praise in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Art News and The Christian Science Monitor. That same year, his paintings were shown in New York at the Harkness House exhibition, Contemporary Oil Paintings from the People's Republic of China. Hefner Galleries, New York, held solo exhibitions of his work in 1987 and 1988. After a lengthy stay in the States, the artist returned to China, where he continues to paint.

Ai Xuan along with many young painters was sent to remote locations in the late 60's in response to student uprisings in the cities. As a direct result of this unique experience he has created powerful images of Tibetans and Nomads, which are hauntingly beautiful and not easily forgotten.

Cao Liwei
Cao Liwei was born in Liaoning, China in 1956. He studied at the Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts from 1978 to 1982 and won first prize for his entry in the graduation exhibition. Between 1981 and 1985 he traveled extensively through out the Provinces of Qinghai and Gangsu as well as Tibet, getting a feel for the landscape of these areas.

In 1985 Cao Liwei earned the silver medal at the National Exhibition of Fine arts. Since that time, his was has been exhibited in France, Canada, and Japan, and in New York at the l987 Harkness House exhibition, Contemporary Oil Painting from the People's Republic of China, and the Hefner Galleries in 1988 and 1989. He now resides in New York.

Cao Liwei's travels to the outer regions of China and Tibet give a vastness to his landscapes. They invoke the feeling of never-ending earth and sky in all the harshness and beauty of nature at its most elemental. The trees, stones and mountains in his painting seem to dominate his landscapes with their ageless strength and wisdom while his human and animal images seem to blend into and become one with this power of nature.

Cao Liwei depicts a land where harsh reality constantly challenges the body and its beauty infinitely stimulates the soul.

Wan Kyun Rha Kim
Wan Kyun Rha Kim was born in Seoul, Korea. She attended undergraduate and graduate school at Smith College where she holds a degree in Physical Chemistry. Mrs. Kim currently resides in New York City with her husband Dr. Andrew B. Kim. They have two sons. She has spent many years as a key figure in the New York community, serving as member, consultant and advisor on many boards and committees. Her leadership and charisma have allowed her to embrace many areas of interest including art, music and golf.

Mrs. Kim's great passion for art has inspired her to create her own paintings. Living in New York City is a constant stimulation and inspiration to her. It is her "museum without walls". The many artists' work she has collected and her personal friendships with them over the years have also influenced Mrs. Kim. Her artistic style is constantly developing and changing while maintaining her own individual strength and passion.

                                 
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