PRINTCatalogue Note:
PEASANT LIFE
LUO ZHONGLI
Different aspects of rural life in the Daba Mountains (Dabashan) of Sichuan have been a favored source of subject matter for the paintings of Luo Zhongli. Luo has dedicated his life to depicting the down-to-earth simplicity and virtue of the peasants living in this mountainous region. Luo's links with the Daba Mountains go back to when he was quite young. In early 1966, while the Cultural Revolution was raging throughout China, Luo (who had been studying at the High School attached to the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute) was sent away from home to live in a small village in the Daba Mountains, in line with the government's policy of sending young urbanites to work in factories and in rural communities, to "learn from the workers, peasants and soldiers." Luo Zhongli was sent to live with a mountain family surnamed Deng. They were simple, hardworking, downto- earth people who were honest and sincere in their dealings with others, and they looked after the young Luo like a member of their own family. Luo found that, while the people living in the Daba Mountains may have been materially impoverished and suffered from a lack of intellectual stimulation, their souls were as pure and uncorrupted as the unpolluted spring-water that welled up from the hills in the Daba Mountains. Luo was struck forcefully by the fact that these mountain communities had a warmth and tranquility that was lacking in the big cities. During the few months that he spent there, Luo sketched scenes from rural life as a "pictorial journal". When it was time for him to leave, Luo Zhongli realized that there was now an inseparable bond linking him to the Deng family and to the Daba Mountains.
The following year, Luo Zhongli finished school and applied for a job working in the Daba Mountains region. He was assigned to a job working as a filterer at a steelworks in the foothills of the Mountains, where most of the workers were peasants recruited from mountain villages. As fate would have it, Luo ended up marrying a girl from the Daba Mountains, making him a real Daba Mountain man himself. With his wife's encouragement, Luo enrolled in the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. In 1977, when Luo Zhongli was 29, the Chinese government reinstituted the university entrance examination system, and Luo was able to return to the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute to study oil painting after an absence of 10 years. During his time at the Institute, Luo studied and experimented with a wide variety of different styles, seeking to find his own artistic path. Thinking about the Daba Mountains, which had grown so familiar to him, and about the inhabitants of the mountain villages with their simple yet authentic lives, Luo began to see a connection with the paintings of the 19th century French artist Jean-François Millet, such as "The Sower", "The Gleaners" and "The Angelus", with their straightforward depictions of the labors and dignity of ordinary working people.
In the Institute's library, Luo happened to come across an article about the works of U.S. hyperrealist artist Chuck Close, which described the dramatic impact that a hyper-realist painting four feet high had on viewers. The article inspired Luo to undertake a large portrait of a peasant, modeled on "Uncle Deng" who had looked after him when he was a teenager. Luo's incredibly realistic, deeply moving painting "Father" has since come to be seen as one of the most important works in the history of modern Chinese art.
The success of "Father" was the making of the young artist's reputation in art circles. More importantly, the success of this work confirmed Luo in his decision as to which artistic trajectory his career should follow; he determined to follow a path based around the themes that were most familiar to him, and which he cared about the most. Starting in 1980, Luo completed a series of paintings that had scenes from rural life in the Daba Mountains as their subject matter, including "Time", "Spring Silkworms", and "Year's End". With their combination of intellectual depth, strong affection for rural communities and high level of artistic skill, these paintings were widely praised, and Luo's work began to attract attention not only within China, but in the wider international art world. Luo's later "Hometown" series used a straightforward, quasi-narrative approach, depicting scenes such as cow-herding, weeding, grinding, embroidering, sheltering from the rain, crossing a river, etc., that seem on the surface to be just random scenes from the daily lives of mountain people, and yet carry with them a breath of fresh air redolent of ancient ways and pristine wilderness, a nostalgia fueled by childhood memories, and a sense of rootedness in the stable reality of the earth.
This particular painting, "Peasant Life", is a fine example of Luo's work during this period. There is no trace of embellishment or superfluous beautification, and no awe-inspiring vistas; what the painting gives us is an image of the essence of innocence, along with a strong sense of the local character of life in the Daba Mountains of Sichuan. The simple, ordinary human figures and the bold use of color, combined with Luo's distinctive treatment of the light and vivid, precise brushwork, create a perfect unity of content and form. This work embodies the areas in which Luo Zhongli excels: the depiction of human figures in different circumstances, and the creation of an environment or atmosphere. The painting inspires in the viewer a sense of temporal dislocation, and awakens the fundamental spiritual need to commune with nature. In the calm, quiet atmosphere that suffuses "Peasant Life", a little girl is shown holding a younger child; she appears to have been left in charge of the toddler while the adults in the family are all working in the fields. The rice seedlings that are just visible in the distance represent hope for this rural family, and the heavy old grindstone on which the children sit symbolizes the realization of that hope. This simple rural scene exudes a powerful sense of togetherness, a sense of the stability that comes from a practical, down-to-earth lifestyle, and a vision of an ideal world in which people live humbly in harmony with nature.
LUO ZHONGLI
Different aspects of rural life in the Daba Mountains (Dabashan) of Sichuan have been a favored source of subject matter for the paintings of Luo Zhongli. Luo has dedicated his life to depicting the down-to-earth simplicity and virtue of the peasants living in this mountainous region. Luo's links with the Daba Mountains go back to when he was quite young. In early 1966, while the Cultural Revolution was raging throughout China, Luo (who had been studying at the High School attached to the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute) was sent away from home to live in a small village in the Daba Mountains, in line with the government's policy of sending young urbanites to work in factories and in rural communities, to "learn from the workers, peasants and soldiers." Luo Zhongli was sent to live with a mountain family surnamed Deng. They were simple, hardworking, downto- earth people who were honest and sincere in their dealings with others, and they looked after the young Luo like a member of their own family. Luo found that, while the people living in the Daba Mountains may have been materially impoverished and suffered from a lack of intellectual stimulation, their souls were as pure and uncorrupted as the unpolluted spring-water that welled up from the hills in the Daba Mountains. Luo was struck forcefully by the fact that these mountain communities had a warmth and tranquility that was lacking in the big cities. During the few months that he spent there, Luo sketched scenes from rural life as a "pictorial journal". When it was time for him to leave, Luo Zhongli realized that there was now an inseparable bond linking him to the Deng family and to the Daba Mountains.
The following year, Luo Zhongli finished school and applied for a job working in the Daba Mountains region. He was assigned to a job working as a filterer at a steelworks in the foothills of the Mountains, where most of the workers were peasants recruited from mountain villages. As fate would have it, Luo ended up marrying a girl from the Daba Mountains, making him a real Daba Mountain man himself. With his wife's encouragement, Luo enrolled in the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. In 1977, when Luo Zhongli was 29, the Chinese government reinstituted the university entrance examination system, and Luo was able to return to the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute to study oil painting after an absence of 10 years. During his time at the Institute, Luo studied and experimented with a wide variety of different styles, seeking to find his own artistic path. Thinking about the Daba Mountains, which had grown so familiar to him, and about the inhabitants of the mountain villages with their simple yet authentic lives, Luo began to see a connection with the paintings of the 19th century French artist Jean-François Millet, such as "The Sower", "The Gleaners" and "The Angelus", with their straightforward depictions of the labors and dignity of ordinary working people.
In the Institute's library, Luo happened to come across an article about the works of U.S. hyperrealist artist Chuck Close, which described the dramatic impact that a hyper-realist painting four feet high had on viewers. The article inspired Luo to undertake a large portrait of a peasant, modeled on "Uncle Deng" who had looked after him when he was a teenager. Luo's incredibly realistic, deeply moving painting "Father" has since come to be seen as one of the most important works in the history of modern Chinese art.
The success of "Father" was the making of the young artist's reputation in art circles. More importantly, the success of this work confirmed Luo in his decision as to which artistic trajectory his career should follow; he determined to follow a path based around the themes that were most familiar to him, and which he cared about the most. Starting in 1980, Luo completed a series of paintings that had scenes from rural life in the Daba Mountains as their subject matter, including "Time", "Spring Silkworms", and "Year's End". With their combination of intellectual depth, strong affection for rural communities and high level of artistic skill, these paintings were widely praised, and Luo's work began to attract attention not only within China, but in the wider international art world. Luo's later "Hometown" series used a straightforward, quasi-narrative approach, depicting scenes such as cow-herding, weeding, grinding, embroidering, sheltering from the rain, crossing a river, etc., that seem on the surface to be just random scenes from the daily lives of mountain people, and yet carry with them a breath of fresh air redolent of ancient ways and pristine wilderness, a nostalgia fueled by childhood memories, and a sense of rootedness in the stable reality of the earth.
This particular painting, "Peasant Life", is a fine example of Luo's work during this period. There is no trace of embellishment or superfluous beautification, and no awe-inspiring vistas; what the painting gives us is an image of the essence of innocence, along with a strong sense of the local character of life in the Daba Mountains of Sichuan. The simple, ordinary human figures and the bold use of color, combined with Luo's distinctive treatment of the light and vivid, precise brushwork, create a perfect unity of content and form. This work embodies the areas in which Luo Zhongli excels: the depiction of human figures in different circumstances, and the creation of an environment or atmosphere. The painting inspires in the viewer a sense of temporal dislocation, and awakens the fundamental spiritual need to commune with nature. In the calm, quiet atmosphere that suffuses "Peasant Life", a little girl is shown holding a younger child; she appears to have been left in charge of the toddler while the adults in the family are all working in the fields. The rice seedlings that are just visible in the distance represent hope for this rural family, and the heavy old grindstone on which the children sit symbolizes the realization of that hope. This simple rural scene exudes a powerful sense of togetherness, a sense of the stability that comes from a practical, down-to-earth lifestyle, and a vision of an ideal world in which people live humbly in harmony with nature.