To realize his dream, one must go through many hardships and difficulties, which, however, is also a process full of fruits and happiness.
At twelve past one o’clock in the morning of December 12th, 2013. Mr. Han Yuchen texted me, saying:” Mr. Su, the last station of my exhibition tour is the 152th session of French National Art Salon Exhibition, which exhibits about 700 art works of 500 artists from 20 countries. My oil painting Shepherdess wins the golden award, and my photograph Yela Mountain wins the silver award among judges. I am the first Chinese artist that goes on the stage in the awarding ceremony.” This text shocked me. It never occurs to me that amateur oil painter that has never been trained before could make his work be praised and admitted in the Europe, the origin of oil painting, and France, which has created the peak of oil painting during the 19th century and 20th century. What a good news for all Chinese!
I first got in touch with Han Yuchen in May 1972, when teachers in China Central Academy of Fine Arts were working in the Cadre School in Cixian County in Handan. Military liaison sent Mr. Li Ye and I to teach in painting training class in Workers Cultural Unit in Handan. Han Yuchen was one of the students there. He told me:” It was the enlightenment of his oil painting.” During his study, we took him to visit the family of Dong Xiwen, and watched some of his paint works. He was determined to visit Tibet after that visit. During his two months’ learning, the 18-year-old Han Yuchen asked me many questions about art, which left a deep impression in my mind.
In 1976, I joined our school’s second session of recruiting the worker-peasant-soldierstudents. The chief of our institute Ma Mianshu and I went to Hebei to search for the right student. Handan Cultural Unit recommended Han Yuchen, who who has the best drawing basics among all the students. In the afternoon on Sept. 9th, we went to the Five Seven Steel Factory by bike. When we arrived there, cadres in the factory told us that the father of Han Yuchen had the political issue. Should we recruit him? After discussion, we decided to make the final decision depending on his performance. The factory had the overnight forum, and asked us to join them. Han Yuchen worked really hard both on his job and painting, and he was strongly recommended by the factory officers. So we decided to recruit him. In the early October, we organized the test to all potential students in Shijiazhuang. Han Yuchen did very well on all subjects. After that, we offered the recruiting sheet to Han. In Dec., the other two students finished all the documents they needed, but Han’s was not finished because the Handan Cultural Department refused to seal on his documents. So Han couldn’t get in the school. What a pity for a student with huge potential.
In 2003, Han Yuchen dropped by and sent his newly published painting book to me. It was by then I knew he had become a famous entrepreneur and got good grades on both painting and photograph. The book also included his sketches and oil paintings for both people and sightseeing in 1980s and 1990s. He was good at calligraphy and photography, and even better in oil painting and sketching, which can compete with graduates from Academy of Fine Arts. As with all these gains, we can see his devotion and persistence towards life as a painter. I was so touched by his persistence on the dream of art all these years while managing a big cooperation at the same time.
In 2011, Han Yuchen brought me to the painting room located on the 40 meters’ high on the Xinshiji Business Square. I saw many of his oil paintings in recent years. He said:” Mr. Su, I want to have an oil painting exhibition in the National Art Museum of China. What do you think?” I found that all those oil paintings were about Tibet, which show a long story about modern life in Tibet. I was so astonished that he has already become a mature oil painter. His dream of art has come true. Of course, my answer was positive, and I told him it would be a successful oil painting exhibition in the National Art Museum of China.
The Shepherd Girl, which won the Golden Prize of the 152 France National Arts Salon, is one of Mr. Han Yuchen’s works of the shepherd girl series. As far as I know, he has gone to Tibet for inspirational painting for many times during these years. And he has produced several works themed shepherd girls of different painting values and colors. The prize-winning work -- The Shepherd Girl -- is also one of my favorites.
Before commenting on Mr. Han Yuchen’s works of the Shepherd Girl, I would like to make a comparison between Mr. Han’s works and other works of the similar subject matter. One is the Shepherd Girl of Miller, who is the painting master in France in the 19th century, and the other one is the Shepherd Viga of Purastof, the paining master of the Soviet Russia in the 20th century. All the three pieces of works have a smooth and rich painting pattern. The apparent horizon has divided the painting into two parts, the sky and the grassland. The painting is teemed with a herd of sheep and the shepherd. In order to highlight the ideological settings, one author chose the setting of the dusk with a sunset, one author chose the setting of the early morning with a sunrise, and the other one chose the setting of a sunny late morning; the three shepherds in these works are respectively a praying girl in twilight, a sleepy-eyed boy welcoming another new day, and a beautiful Tibetan girl herding the sheep to graze in the dawn. Though the three authors lived in different eras and countries, they have something in common with the painting: making use of all the painting elements to accurately and profoundly record and reflect the lifestyle, local landscape and characteristics of local ethnic groups in different eras. The inheritance and development of arts can also be clearly traced in these paintings. Oil painting originated from the Europe and was then spread to Russia. Of course, there may still be a gap in painting techniques between Mr. Han Yuchen and the other two painting masters. However, Mr. Han Yuchen’s the Shepherd Girl has genuinely inherited the European tradition of oil painting, especially the expression technique of realism. Mr. Han has organically integrated the painting pattern, shape, color and arts techniques into the circumstance of the Chinese Tibetan pasture. The painting has been endowed with a strong and distinct humanistic spirit and a sense of life aesthetics. Meanwhile, the author’s distinct arts style has also been manifested.
When Mr. Han were creating the series works of the Shepherd Girl, he has tried many expressions of painting values and colors. The Golden Prize-winning works has adopted a relatively cold painting color, which is plainer and more elegant. Under the back light, the white sheep fur has appeared more transparent and beautiful, enhancing the expression of levels of the sheep herd. Moreover, the painting has also done a good job in shifting spatial locations. The horizontal lines shaped by the sheep herd together with the long sunshine ray projections create a broader vision. The receding figure of the Tibetan shepherd girl is quite clear and gorgeous. All these elements have expressed the unique charm of traditional Chinese culture, a low-profiled and reserved style. And they are also the embodiment of the painter’s original idea.
Some foreign media have often wrongly depicted Tibet of China as a dark society that is left behind by the times. However, Mr. Han Yuchen has drawn on many oil painting works of Tibet (including photograph works) to depict the natural, genuine and plain environment there. Mr. Han’s works have helped the world to know the real situation of Tibet in China. And this is also the charm of the Shepherd Girl, one of his works of realistic painting.
I have known Mr. Han Yuchen for over 40 years. Actually, he has been dedicated to the arts of oil painting for only 20 years or so. And he has still had some space for further improvement in the painting arts. The Golden Prize-winning works of France National Arts Salon, the Shepherd Girl, has again proved that, just as Mr. Mao Zedong said, “all ideological works of arts are the production of the brains of people living in social life. Life is the only inexhaustible source of all kinds of literature and arts”. Indeed, there is no exception no matter in ancient or modern times, no matter in China or abroad. Another meaning of his prize winning lies in developing a proper path for Chinese oil painting to go to the international painting circle.
