Forever Dream (Oil on canvas, 100 x 50 cm, 2008)

Oil paintings from the „FORBIDDEN CITY" series

Jiang Guo Fang represents a part of Chinese contemporary history. His track record is describing a path of life coming from humble homes, going through the unbelievable disturbances of the Cultural Revolution and being an extremely successful artist today. The most important impulse of his career was next to his great talent his enormous effort and the commitment to his subject: The Forbidden City.

Jiang Guo Fang's work is essentially influenced by his altercation with the occidental art. He impressively combines the traditional Chinese style with the style of European masters. Jiang Guo Fang's knowledge of the dynasties of Chinese emperors is extensive and he reflects in his works the history of his home country with a distant view. The paintings of the Forbidden City series, the portraits and scenes from the 600 years old palace of the emperor in Beijing, get their special expression from his own style of painting.

Court Lady (Oil on canvas, 74 x 50,5 cm, 2007)

Dream of a Lotus Flower (Oil on canvas, 100 x 53 cm, 2008)

Born in 1951 in Shangjiang, a village in the Chinese province Jiangxi as son of a craftsman, Jiang Guo Fang was since 1968 member of the army during Mao's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and began after his discharge in 1970 his artistic career in self study at first. Jiang Guo Fang did a lot of jobs to earn money, also in the 4,5 million city Nanchang in the centre of the people's republic. Here he participated in several art projects, organized by the city.

1974, in the last days of the cultural revolution, Jiang Guo Fang started to study oil painting at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, the state Academy for Fine Arts at Peking. Now he saw first time the Forbidden City at Peking, an experience, which impressed him that deeply, that it - in his words - traced him into his dreams. From then on he began to deal more intensively with the old Royal Palace and the Forbidden City became for him a manifestation of a thousand years old cultural history of China. The Forbidden City in Peking is the symbol for China, just as the Great Wall. Here ruled the last emperor of Qing (1644-1911), who followed the Ming (1368-1644) as the last dynasty. 1405 emperor Yongle of the Ming dynasty relocated the capital city of the Chinese empire from Nanking to Beijing and began between 1407 and 1420 with the construction of the monumental palace. The complex with his hundreds of palaces and thousands of rooms is the materialization of thousands of years old Chinese civilization and culture.

1978 he left the Academy as graduate and in the same year became teacher for oil painting. Furthermore he taught at the faculty of Fine Arts at the Central Institute of Drama in Peking, where later on he became professor. Since 1998 he works as independent artist.

Since 1980 he presents his works in group or solo exhibitions, at first in the heartland of China, from the 1990th as well in the outer provinces of his country, finally in Europe and America: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Brussels, Rome, Sicily, Paris, New York are part of his way of carrier. 1994 the Schoeni Art Gallery in Hong Kong showed fort he first time the paintings of his Forbidden City series. Meanwhile on international auctions for Jiang Guo Fangs paintings are paid premium prices more then 400.000 US-Dollars.
„With my paintings I would like to contribute to understanding and appreciation of the cultural heritage, not only on the part of the Chinese but as well from people in the whole world." says the today nearly 60-years old artist about his works, which most of all emerge at his work shop in the small town Yanjiao at the border between the provinces Peking and Hebei. By not only depicting the Chinese history, but reflecting the spirit of Chinese tradition with European elements of style, in his works he is searching for a language which connects harmonically eastern with western culture. Steadfast Jiang Guo Fang strives for artistic perfection and for the finally valid expression, which as well he sometimes tries to find about several variations of a motif in measure, composition and color.

Trained in eastern and western techniques of painting, the traditional aesthetics of Chinese painting plays a big role for him. That is why he believes that no western painter is able to render the „Forbidden City" in the same way like himself. „It is true other eastern artists have chosen the Chinese Royal Palace as subject, but Jiang Guo Fang up to now is the only one, who is going in for it in such a perfection and dimensions and as well is planning for the future to devote further on in his art work on the „Forbidden City".

The Song of Morning (Oil on canvas, 150 x 95 cm, 2006)

Sunset of an old Soldier (Oil on canvas, 140 x 150 cm, 2007)

On grounds of their distinct style, Jiang Guo Fangs images create a new kind of historical painting. They are painted meditations engaging in the contemplation of the past. Times in which the more than 600 years old and about five square metres large palace sheltered the imperial dynasties and their families; times in which although a child emperor was positioned on the throne the country was in fact reigned by the mothers, the empresses. Provided that the viewer is capable of deciphering Chinese letters, a dignified note of irony becomes perceptible. As in the painting "Dream" that portrays a sleeping child emperor in front of a golden wall covering presenting the very rules under which the monarch should lead his country and people to brightest prospects. The silence in his paintings evoked through his soft and smooth stroke of the brush is misleading. The close imperial circle never was a peaceful environment, but rather dominated by intrigues about the succession to the throne.

"What I am after are the aesthetic elements in the historical subjects, elements with certain symbolic meanings. I reject pragmatism and do not wish my art to have direct connection of real life. I hope that, while appreciating my works, people may understand reality and history, the beautiful and the symbolic, human nature and nature itself in a broader sense. I pay attention to the national and traditional characters of my art, because the majestic long river of our history carries a vast and rich cultural heritage. Its wonder is closely associated with the regeneration of the Chinese nation. In the free space of imagination, it has lent a unique attraction to my art. This is what I believe in and what I am after."

Palace Gate (Oil on canvas, 78 x 99 cm, 2001)

Jiang Guo Fang: About Myself -