Rural Artists Create Their World

June 6， 2010 saw the curtain rise on the fourth China Rural Painters Festival in Xiuzhou， a rural district in Jiaxing in northern Zhejiang Province. The district now boasts a galaxy of amateur folk artists in its vast rural area. When the phenomenon started in 1983， there were only 9 of rural painters in Xiuzhou. Now there are more than 1，800. More than 140 paintings by the folk artists in Xiuzhou are now in the collection of China Art Gallery. Xiuzhou folk artists have exhibited at total of nearly 3，000 paintings in 13 countries such as the USA， France and Japan.

We visited 64-year-old Zhang Jinquan， a boatman-turned painter in the village of Shengquan， Youchegang Township. Excited， the old man showed us around his two-story villa-styled house in the north of the village. It serves as his home and his studio. The 60-m2 sitting room on the ground floor looked like a gallery. In the center is an L-shaped sofa; an air conditioner is on the ceiling; on the four walls are his paintings. A room adjacent to the sitting room and a room on the second floor are also full of his paintings. Altogether there are 60 paintings.

Zhang explained these paintings in great detail. All the paintings reflect his lifestyle: water is an omnipresent factor in his artistic creations. Asked whether he ever sketched anywhere else， he said never. With the rural scene around him and in his memory， he said he has got more than enough in his mind to paint for this life. He used to work as a boatman and carpenter. As highways made inroads into the rural area， rivers stopped serving as transport system and he retired from his boat work. He found that painting resembled carpentry in many ways. He has been painting for more than 10 years and many villagers followed suit after seeing what he painted.

Miu Huixin is another big painter in rural Xiuzhou. He was one of the nine in 1983. His official identity then was a rural teacher. After winning a first award and a third award at the provincial art exhibition in 1983， he became a secretary at the town’s government. It was a comparatively idle job， giving him a lot of time painting. He treasured his opportunity. In 1987， he won another first award at the provincial folk artist competition. In the winter of 1987， he staged his first solo exhibition in Beijing. His 60 some paintings caused a sensation in the capital. From 1993 to 1995， he held another three solo exhibitions in Beijing. In 1995， he staged his solo exhibition in France. In 1997， he held his exhibition in USA. The leaders in town promoted him to a better idle job and allowed him more time for painting. In 1998 and 2004， Miu Huixin staged his exhibition twice the USA. In 1998， he was touted as the Oriental Picasso by Asia Times.

Chen Yufeng has seen how the rural folk artists learned to paint and grew up from the very beginning. And over the past 25 years， he has been coaching villagers on how to paint at a course that has been offered every one or two years in Xiuzhou. He gave us an account of what rural painting is and how it has flourished in Xiuzhou.

According to Chen Yufeng， the folk artists in Huxian County in Shaanxi Province set their artistic inspiration free in paintings in the early 1950s. They were the first generation of rural farmer-painters in new China. Rural folk artists in Jinshan County in Shanghai became famous during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Rural painting in Xiuzhou became a phenomenon in 1983. After Xiuzhou District came into being in 1983， the newly established district culture center wanted to take part in a national art exhibition. On the initiative of the culture center， 9 art aficionados from villagers and rural culture centers gathered to create something. Chen Yufeng was one of the nine. They had heard of so called farmers’ paintings， but they were totally clueless what to paint and how to paint in the style. So they traveled and tried to find out what it was. What they saw was eye-opening. They found that you don’t need any professional artistic training. You just paint whatever you want to paint in whatever way that pleases you.

Back home from the field study， the nine folk artists began to create. In a few days， they created 16 paintings， portraying various aspects of a rural life they had known since childhood. Their paintings were greatly appreciated. Zhang Juemin， one of the nine， won a national first award. Miu Huixin won a top provincial award and a second national award.

Nowadays， some Xiuzhou rural artists are tapping into art market. In 2009， some rural residents in Xiuzhou opened their online shops at Taobao.com， the largest C2C website in China. They market their paintings online. Some rural artists create paintings on caps， umbrellas， t-shirts， and fashion garments.□