Artist Finds Beauty in Roots

Zhang Dehe is not just another root-carving master He is one of the greatest masters of root carving art in China and his art museum in Xiangshan， a coastal county in Zhejiang Province， is the largest of its kind in the country He has won more than 40 top awards at various national arts and crafts events over the past 20 years He is the only Chinese root-carving artist with widely recognized international fame

The museum is a structure featuring the Anhui architectural style， popular in the south of the Yangtze River Delta It sits against a hill and faces a lake in rural Xiangshan The local government provided the land of 3，400 square meters free of charge and Zhang Dehe had the museum constructed at the cost of 10 million out of his own pocket The design of the museum was masterminded by Wu Liangyong， a professor of Qinghua University and a dis-tinguished academician of world renown with China Academy of Engineering and China Academy of Sciences The two met in September 1999 at China Culture Week in Paris Nine traditional Chinese arts dis-played their artworks and Zhang Dehe was the only root-carving master He showed 20 plus masterpieces and demonstrated his art on the spot Wu Liangyong was deeply impressed by Zhang’s carving

Now in his 50s， Zhang started his carving career as an artist who created sculptures out of bamboo roots His child-hood years were closely associated with bamboo: he played with playthings made of bamboo and ate foods made of bamboo shoots In the 1970s， he began experiment-ing with carving on bamboo roots He set up a factory to mass produce bamboo-roots sculptures and exported his artworks His passion for creating art on bamboo roots drove him to further explore the beauty hidden in the junk material In 1993， he received a gold award for his masterpiece entitled “Longing” at the Fourth Exhibition for Excellent Root Artworks of China This gold medal proved to be a turning point in his creative career He shut down his busi-ness and dedicated himself to art Thanks to his talent and innovative spirit， he has invented a group of carving skills and cre-ated quite a few prizewinning artworks He is widely considered China’s best artist of bamboo-root carving

Zhang’s virtuosity and talent is by no means accidental An artist that grew up in rural Xiangshan， he knew he needed to understand aesthetics better before he could go further in his artistic exploration He boned up on books of aesthetics The books by Wang Chaowen (1909-2004)， one of the greatest aestheticians of the 20th-century China， appealed to Zhang In particular， Wang explained some profound theories about sculpture， which opened Zhang’s eyes With the introduction of Yang Chenying， a professor with China Academy of Art， Zhang Dehe invited Wang to visit him in Xiangshan In May 1997， the 90-year-old master of aesthetics arrived Wang and his wife and other family mem-bers stayed in Xiangshan for eight days Wang examined Zhang’s artworks， held long conversations with Zhang about art， confirmed what Zhang had accomplished， and pointed out what might be further explored in the future

Wang’s visit played a critical role in Zhang’s maturity as an artist Gradually， his new sculptures on bamboo roots began to exhibit new dimensions He had the same knife and handled similar bamboo roots， but he created better works of art， thus start-ing his gold-medal winning streak from the late 1990s to the beginning years of the 21st century Many peer engravers jokingly dubbed him a gold medal specialist

After winning more than 40 gold med-als for his bamboo-root sculpture， Zhang slowed down， although many expected to see him win more g Some wondered whether he had exhausted his creativity

The answer is negative With an under-standing of the limits of bamboo roots， Zhang began to look at tree roots: there are simply greater possibilities But he had a qualm against possible expansion into tree roots He once had won two gold medals at an art event: one for his bamboo-root art-work and the other for his artwork carved on a tree root After the rewards were is-sued， an artist came up to him and asked him to concentrate on bamboo-root carving and leave the tree roots job to other people Zhang talked with Professor Yang about his misgivings Yang urged him to go ahead with his new direction: art is an individual undertaking and you do not need to worry about other people’s comments

He went ahead with his tree-root un-dertakings Nowadays， his root-carving museum displays more than 100 tree-root sculptures The quantity accounts for a majority of his private collection And he has won many prestigious awards In 2008， his tree root sculpture entitled “Untitled” won a gold medal at the Best Root-Carving Artworks of China

In 2010， his “A Leisurely Moment” won a special gold at a national exhibition It is delightfully innovative Unlike most bamboo-root sculptures， this sculpture makes a masterful use of the inside part of a bamboo root and portrays the face of an ethnic girl The master is extremely proud of the innovation Also in 2010， he dis-played his masterpiece “Master of Diaoyu Island” at the Shanghai World Expo

Zhang as a master has been chosen twice as a Chinese culture messenger to visit Europe Many of his sculptures are in the collections of museums， art galleries， and private collectors at home and abroad □