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Ad Code: 4
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An example of work by Zhiwei Tu
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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Biography from Nichols Taos Fine Art Gallery:
| Zhiwei Tu was born in Northern Guangdong Province of China in 1951, the
son of peasant parents. As a young artist he received
considerable regional fame from his artistic exposure, and soon other
artists, teachers and museums directors traveled from great distances
to see his work and watch him paint.
In 1972 Tu was invited to study at China’s famous Guangzhou Institute
of Fine Arts. After many hard-working years, Tu was doing paintings
that were welcomed with open arms by the public. He became a
member of Guangdong Artists Association and of Guangdong Oil Painters
Association.
In 1981 Tu was promoted to professorship of fine arts at Guangzhou Institute.
Of him it was written: “ Tu’s work is uniquely his own. He finds a
special way, which belongs only to him. He flies freely with full wings
in the blue sky of art. Tu’s paintings are simple in
character. No cleverness, fashionable tricks, nor superficiality
appear in his work, he has opened up a special feeling in art which
belongs only to him”
In 1987 Tu came to the United States to enter Drake University in Des
Moines, Iowa, to further his education and career. He had applied
to four other universities and had been offered three-year scholarships
at each.
He has won numerous National and International awards including the Oil Painters of America Best of Show.
Mr. Tu’s own words: “ I have been given a gift by some power, and
I am deeply thankful for it. With this gift I am able to put on
canvas my passion and vision, to create these paintings. When
very young, I used to look at my hands in wonderment and try to
understand how beauty could come forth from them. I still have
that feeling today every time I put a brush to a canvas.
Sharing his life are his wife Danni and son Danlang, both of whom joined him in America in July 1988.
His most recent achievement is to be given the Presidency of Oil Painters of America.
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Biography from AskART:
| The following is from the artist's website: http://www.tustudio.com
Zhiwei
Tu was born to peasant parents in a remote rural village of Guangdong
Province, China, in 1951. Like other boys of the village, as a
child Tu helped to work the land, barefoot most of the time, and
performed the menial tasks expected of every peasant child. He spent
his days herding sheep and gathering food. Thus, his early life
was much the same as that of his ancestors.
When he began
attending the local village school, Tu was issued a slate, chalk, rough
paper, and pencil for school work. With these crude instruments he
early demonstrated an extraordinary talent for drawing which captivated
the attention and wonder of his teachers. In the village of his youth,
however, drawing was an amusing pastime with no practical application
or use, and so the young boy received little encouragement.
It
was not until the equivalent of high school age that Zhiwei first saw
oil paints being used to create brightly colored images. The way this
discovery came about is truly a remarkable story.
The
government in Beijing had dispatched an experienced artist to the
village to create a huge picture of Chairman Mao Tse-tung. Young Zhiwei
happened by one afternoon and saw the painter at work. Fascinated, he
watched for hours on end and finally asked the man if he could have
samples of his paints. Zhiwei took them to the equivalent of the
village pharmacy. There, he acquired cans of paint which he mixed at
home into more than a dozen different shades.
The next day,
instead of going to school Zhiwei returned to the site where the artist
was still at work on the portrait. The boy boldly set up a work
space next to the artist and began painting his own portrait of
Mao. When both the artist and the boy were done, the village
elders were shocked to discover that Zhiwei's portrait of Mao was far
superior. They even selected it for public display instead of the
artist's own painting.
After this introduction to the wonders
of oil painting, Zhiwei was overcome with a feverish drive to paint.He
worked as if possessed, painting everything he saw or could imagine in
his mind. Entirely self-taught, the young boy's keen eye and phenomenal
ability to transfer what he saw and imagined into works of art stunned
all who knew him. To their credit, his teacher and parents gave the boy
latitude to continue expressing himself in this way.
Soon,
word of the extraordinary young boy with the astonishing artistic gift
spread well beyond the village. Museum directors, art professors, and
government officials traveled from hundreds of miles away just to see
the phenomenon with their own eyes. Among scores of important visitors
was the director of the Wengyuan Cultural Center, who offered Zhiwei a
full scholarship if he would agree to undertake formal studies there.
Zhiwei
Tu entered the university in 1972 and earned a bachelor's degree in
Fine Arts in 1975. Afterwards, he worked for a time at illustrating
children's books for publishing houses while trying desperately to
continue serious painting in what spare time he had. But he had
to work in secret, under cover of darkness.
The Cultural
Revolution, which began in 1966 and lasted about ten years, did not
enhance Chinese culture, as its name would imply. Instead the opposite
occurred. China's intellectuals were publicly harassed, forced to work
in the fields, to clean toilets, and to stand endlessly in shame at
public bus stops or march through the streets wearing "dunce" caps with
placards hung around their necks proclaiming their "sins." Many
were severely beaten. Everyone was required to study Mao's
teachings and read only approved books about him. Students denounced
their teachers, children denounced their families, neighbors denounced
each other.
The only art that was tolerated involved subject
matter that glorified the revolution.It was considered
counter-revolutionary to address personal or inspirational themes in
one's work. Any artist who wanted to express his individual talent
through painting, sculpting, or other art forms did so only at great
risk to himself.
Once, while Tu was creating a painting to his
own liking, someone suddenly pushed open the door to his room and saw
it. A report was made at once. As his punishment, Tu was
forced by Red Guards to tend cattle on a distant farm.
Because
all graduate schools were closed as the Cultural Revolution reached its
zenith, Tu's studies were interrupted. With time hanging heavily on his
hands, he became a vagabond. For months he wandered through many
distant parts of China and along the way learned a great deal about
Chinese culture, history, and the contemporary customs of the many
localities and ethnic groups throughout China. These experiences
inspired him to create hundreds of paintings and sketches of the people
of Tibet and other remote and nearly inaccessible areas. It was during
these travels, too, that he was inspired to undertake the painting of a
heroic-sized work depicting the monarchy of the ancient courts of
China.
By 1978 the Cultural Revolution had ground to a halt.
China's universities reopened their graduate programs. The prestigious
Guangzhou Art Institute, one of the most heralded art centers in the
world, held an art competition that year.Top prize for the best artists
was the chance to enroll as a graduate student.
Mr. Tu won the
competition and entered the Institute for further studies.Two years
later he was awarded a Master's Degree in fine arts while perfecting
his technique and, incidentally, meeting his future wife, Danny Hu. Ms.
Hu was a violinist with the Guangzhou Institute Orchestra and is the
daughter of Hu Yicuhuan, then director of the Institute and one of the
foremost Chinese painters of the Twentieth Century.
At the
Guangzhou Institute, Tu was able to study under such notable artists as
Guo Shaogang, Xu Jianbai, Yin Guoliang, Wang Zhaomin, and, of course,
Mr. Hu. Shortly after earning an M.F.A., Tu's work began to receive
recognition in some of the highest circles of the Chinese art
world. Two paintings, Child and Thinking, received widespread acclaim in 1980 at the Guangdong Art Competition. Child won First Prize and Thinking
was published in Art Gallery, the international art book. Tu was
invited to become a member of Guangdong Artists Association and of the
Guangdong Oil Painters Association.
In 1981 he received an appointment as Professor of Fine Arts at Guangzhou Institute. One of his great masterpieces, Seven-Step Poem,
was featured on Guangdong television as one of the prize-winning works
from the Sixth National Art Exhibition. He also participated in three
national exhibitions, and as a result was invited to become a member of
the prestigious Chinese Artists Association.
In 1986 the
Guangdong Artists Association held a famous serial show called "the
Galaxy Exhibition." The first show was titled, "Tu's Recent
Paintings," and it was a huge success. His renown as one of
China's most promising painters was assured. One-man shows followed in
such leading Asian cities as Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kula Lumpur, Malaysia,
Taipai, and Bangkok. His works also were exhibited in
international shows in Canada, Algeria, and France.
Zhiwei
Tu's paintings have been added to the permanent collections of many
notable Chinese museums, including the National Museum in
Beijing. His works have been shown throughout China and featured
in Fine Art magazine of China, Painter of Fine Art of Hong Kong, Artist Magazine of Taiwan,
and various art books and magazines in the U.S. Articles about Tu and
his paintings appear regularly in many major art magazines including Art Gallery of Guangdong, and Art Gallery of Tiangjing, Jiangsu Art Magazine, Guangdong Pictorial Magazine, and Zhejiang Pictorial Magazine, as well as on China's television news and in many newspapers.
Art
books collecting his work, such as Tu's Oil Paintings, Weng Shan Han
Mo, and Zhiwei Tu, were published in Taiwan, China and United States,
respectively. Many articles about Tu and his art have been
written by well-known art critics and fellow artists. The former
vice president of Guangzhou Institute of Fine Arts, Yin Guoliang, has
said of Mr. Tu:
"When you stand in front of Tu's work, you are
in an atmosphere filled with enthusiasm and unadorned spirit. Like a
fountain, his abundant inspiration flows from his brush to his canvas.
He is capable of expressing great emotion in his paintings. His work is
uniquely his own. He finds a special way which belongs only to himself.
He flies freely with full wings in the blue sky of art. Tu's paintings
are simple in character. No cleverness, fashionable tricks, or
superficiality appear in his work. He has opened up a special feeling
in art which belongs only to him."
"Modern Chinese painting
tends to be very representational. People seem to expect that style
from me," Tu says. "I enjoy realism, of course, but my favorite style
is what might be classed as impressionism." Tu is equally adept with
the brush or palette knife, although he confesses to a special fondness
for the rich, thickly laid-on paint of the knife. As U.S. art broker
Don Auto says:
"The amazing thing about Zhiwei Tu is that
although he employs diverse styles, he has mastered each equally. His
big, heroic, realistic canvasses are full of action and drama but even
the more photo-realistic or smaller pieces are memorable. It is more
than a matter of superb technique. He pulls out the emotions of his
subjects no matter what style is being used. His mastery of color and
honesty of vision entrance the viewer. It is more than dramatic impact,
however, because of the extreme detail which even a camera cannot
capture. It is not until you get within a few inches of the canvas that
the tiny brush strokes become visible."
Seeking to broaden his
education and further his career, Zhiwei was granted a sabbatical from
the Guangzhou Institute to accept a full scholarship at Drake
University, in Des Moines, Iowa, America's heartland, in 1987.
There, he studied under the internationally acclaimed American painter,
Jules Kirschenbaum, while also taking a full schedule of English
language courses.
Today, Mr. Tu still treasures a letter he
received from Professor Kirchenbaum which concluded, "You are a
remarkable artist and there is not much you do not know about art. When
you can speak better English we will talk about art, the philosophy of
art, and learn from each other."
At Drake, Mr. Tu discovered
an urgent longing for his homeland which he expressed in a series of
astonishingly beautiful paintings drawing on memories of his travels
throughout China. He also began creating other works of a different
nature, however, inspired by the people he was meeting and the places
he was visiting in the United States. Once, on a trip to see Mount
Rushmore, Mr. Tu visited a Sioux Indian reservation in South Dakota. He
was surprised to find scenes of Native Americans strikingly similar to
those of some parts of rural China.
"I know, of course, that
Native Americans originally came from Asia, but I was surprised at
their resemblance to the Chinese peasants," Tu says.
While at
Drake University, Mr. Tu lived on the tight budget of a graduate
student, so he frequently had to drive his paintings to exhibits in
Chicago, Minneapolis, and Kansas City. He says now, "It wasn't
the recommended way to see America, but now I know all the highways and
streets from one gallery to another across the Midwest!"
During
this time word of his work began to spread quickly, just as it had in
China. Tu was accepted into more than twenty gallery and museum shows
throughout the Midwest and the East Coast. In 1989 he won the Best of
Drake University's 18th Annual Art Competition. An article
entitled, "Artist's Works Illustrate Western Influence" was published
by the Sunday World Herald in Omaha, Nebraska. Mr. Tu
also won the Best In All Media at the Iowa Salon XII Show 1990. In 1993
he won the Second Prize in the Oil Painters of America Show and Best In
Show at the Oil Painters of America annual in 1994.
By the
time he received an M.F.A. from Drake, his paintings were being
exhibited in prestigious galleries in New York, Boston, Detroit,
Cincinnati, Indianapolis, New Orleans, San Antonio, Dallas, Taos, N.M.,
and Carmel, California, as well as across the Midwest. It was
during this same transitional period in his career that he won the
coveted Gold Prize at the World Cultural Convention in Algiers for his
painting Dream of Children. Three of his large paintings
also were selected by the GHK Company for the first major exhibition in
New York City of present-day Chinese oil paintings.
Mr. Tu's
wife, Danni, and son Dan joined him in the United States in 1988.
In 1990 the family relocated in the Chicago area. Mrs. Tu teaches
violin and piano. Dan is now enrolled as a student in electrical
engineering at the University of Illinois. Mr. Tu is represented
in many fine art galleries throughout the United States. He also
continues to exhibit internationally and in his homeland of China.
ONE-MAN EXHIBITS
Gallerie Kornye. Dallas, Texas. May 1995.
Imavision Gallery, Taiwan. December 1994.
454 Gallery, Detroit. Michigan. May 1993.
Metropolitan Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. March 1992.
Simic Gallery, Carmel, California. November 1991.
Weeks Art Museum, Des Moines. February, 1990.
Point Gallery, Chicago, Illinois. October 1990 and 1989.
Signet Gallery of Fine Art, Chicago, Illinois. February 1989.
Discoveries Gallery, Omaha, Nebraska. June 1989.
Janice S. Hunt Gallery, Chicago, Illinois. October 1988.
Percival Gallery, Des Moines, Iowa. March 1988.
Guangdong Gallery, Guangzhou, China. April 1986.
The Guangzhou Art Institute Museum, Guangzhou. China, 1982.
GROUP SHOWS
Jasmine Hall, Singapore, 1996.
Greenhouse Gallery, Texas, 1996.
International Show, Taiwan, 1994 and 1995.
Imavision Gallery, Taiwan, 1994-1995.
454 Gallery, Michigan, 1990-1996.
Carmichael Gallery, Minnesota, 1988-1996.
Kornye Gallery, Texas, 1995-1996.
Miller Gallery, Ohio, 1995-1996.
Nymeyer Gallery. Illinois, 1994-1995.
Lone Grove Gallery, Illinois, 1993-1996.
Peterson Gallery, Minnesota, 1998-1996.
Beacon Street Art Center Gallery, Illinois, 1993.
Five Artists Exhibition, China, 1992.
International Show of Chicago, Illinois, 1992.
Simic Gallery of Beverly Hills, California, 1991-1992.
The Brunnier Gallery and Museum, Iowa, 1989-1990.
Three Artists Show, East-West Gallery, Illinois, 1988.
First Oil Painting Exhibition of China, The Harkness House, New York, 1987.
China-Japan Artist Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan, 1987.
The World Cultural Convention, Algeria, 1987.
Contemporary Oil Painting Show, Hong Kong, 1986.
Guangdong Painting Show, Bangkok, Thailand, 1985.
The National Exhibition, Beijing, China, 1985.
Eight Artists Exhibition, Guangzhou. China, 1985.
Three-Man Show, Henan, China, 1984.
Sixth Chinese Art Exhibition, Beijing, China, 1984.
Two-Man Show, Guangzhou Art Institute Museum, 1982
Three-Man Show, Guangzhou Art Institute Museum, 1981.
Chinese Young Artists Exhibition, Beijing, China, 1980.
Guangdong Artists Exhibition, Guangzhou, China. 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1984, and 1986.
INTERNATIONAL
Mr. Tu's paintings also have been exhibited extensively in China
(Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Guangzhou), Japan (Tokyo), Algeria,
Thailand, Singapore, Canada, France, England, and in major cities in
the United States from New York to Los Angeles and New Orleans to
Minneapolis.
AWARDS
Award for Master Signature Members, Oil Painters of America, 2002
Award of the President of Oil Painters of America, 1996
Best in the Midwest Show of Oil Painters of America, 1994.
Second Prize in the National Oil Painters of America Show, 1993.
Best in Show for the Exhibition Iowa College Salon XII 1990.
Best in the Show 18th Annual Art Competition Drake University, Des Moines, 1989.
The Gold Prize at the World Cultural Convention in Algiers. 1987.
First Prize at Guangdong Artistic Work Show in China, 1980.
ACADEMIA
Education
M.A and B.A., Guangzhou Institute of Fine Arts, China, 1981 and 1975.
M.F.A. Drake University, Des Moines, USA, 1990.
Teaching
Assistant Professor of Art. Guangzhou Institute of Fine Arts. China, 1981-1989.
Assistant Professor of Art, College of South China Literature and Art, China, 1983-1987.
Assistant Professor of Art, Guangzhou College of Fine Arts, China, 1981-1987.
Assistant Professor of Art, Teaching College of Shiaoguan, China. 1975-1978.
Resident Artist, Cultural Center of Wengyuan, China, 1970-1972
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Zhiwei Tu is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
The California Art Club
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