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- and modernist artist with a simplistic style in the 1930s, and was able to work in fully up-to- date Western styles. Sanyu, who lived in abject poverty for much of his life, is now recognized for his genius. There have been four retrospective exhibitions of his work at the National History Museum in Taipei.
Zao Wou-ki (b. 1921) [86], a student of Lu Shoukun, is another very successful emigre artists who settled in Paris permanently in the 1940s and acquired an international reputation. From early in his career he was interested in modernism and was influenced by radical Impressionist, Fauvist and Cubist styles. While in France he increasingly ex�pressed his individualism through abstract forms. Zao, although widely exhibited in major museums around the world, has had little attention in his native China. Recently his works have met with a new enthusiasm in China.
Two overseas Chinese women painters-Tseng Yuho Ecke (b. 1923) [80] of Honolulu and Irene Chou (b. 1924) [J] now of Australia-have greatly contributed to the art scene. Tseng, who started out painting traditional works of art has, over the years, created a style with a sense of modernity, and Chou, a student of Lu Shoukun, has created an abstract style with strong colours and impressive rhythmic visual effects.
Painting in Podt Mao China 1977 - Present
The last quarter of this century has been a time of rapid changes of unprecedented scale for China. It will undoubtedly be looked upon as one of the most creative periods in the history of Chinese painting. This period has seen more freedom than ever before and there has been a willingness by Chinese artists to experiment with an infinite number of different artistic ideas in order to express their thoughts.
Not long after the end of the suffocating restrictions of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, art teachers and artists, who had been humiliated, were rehabilitated and allowed to return home from the countryside to the newly re-opened art schools. An Artists� Association was set up, with a branch in several major cities, where artists could meet, work and exhibit. There was a rebellion against socialist realism, which quickly declined in popularity. Well- known professional artists emerged after years of forced silence, were restored to promi�nence and have taken up where they left off ten years earlier. Throughout the land, they have responded to this transition to artistic liberty with a renewed vigour full of creative energy as never seen before in the People�s Republic. A wide spectrum of styles and media came to be used to portray a variety of themes. By November of 1979 a new, more liberal art policy was officially proclaimed by the Fourth Congress of Artists and Writers to safeguard against future disasters like the Cultural Revolution by issuing this statement �The Chinese National Arts Association will legally defend the artist�s right to individual expression ... as long as the artist does not subvert the goals of the Communist Party.�
By the late part of 1978, China began to open its door again to foreign art ideas as it had done in the early part of the century. Artists had access to foreign art books and magazines. Major exhibitions of foreign artists were held in China�s prestigious galleries. Artists from the West and Japan began coming to China to study in art schools and Chinese artists began travelling abroad to study.
One of the Chinese artists who best exemplifies the finest art produced by using a combination of Eastern and Western techniques is Wu Guanzhong (b. 1919) [front cover, G]. Wu resurfaced in mid career after the Cultural Revolution to become the driving force behind the modernization of traditional style painting in Communist China. For the last two decades, this surrealistic painter has been boldly exploring ways of reconciling Chinese and Western traditions. Younger artists emerging as leaders after the Cultural Revolution include Li Huasheng (b. 1944) [35], noted for his unrestrained and innovative landscapes and Chen Jialing (b. 1937) [4], noted for his very distinctive �boneless� style.
The revival of polychromatic paintings in the 1980s and 1990s has given birth to many splendid works as typified by such artists as Zhang Bu (b. 1934) [O] (now living in Victoria,
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