Painter promotes the art of Jinshan farmers at expo
SHANGHAI — In front of curious visitors, Lu Yongzhong slowly adds colors to a painting depicting three smiling women in front of a sea of green crops. The women wear blouses featuring flowers, with one holding a baby, one carrying a basket of fruit and the other holding a package.
“This is a traditional Jinshan farmer’s painting,” says Lu, 50, who grew up in a rural town in Jinshan district of Shanghai.
“Such paintings feature bright colors and usually depict the idyllic lives of farmers in rural Shanghai.”
Jinshan farmers’ paintings abound in rural Shanghai, but those from Jinshan district are the most typical. The paintings are one of the traditional folk arts in Shanghai and is on the city’s intangible cultural heritage list, Lu says.
This week, Lu brought several of his paintings to the third China International Import Expo in Shanghai, hoping to promote the art to a wider audience at the event.
The paintings became a fad in the 1960s and ’70s in Jinshan when local farmers began to paint for festive occasions such as Spring Festival and weddings. The paintings also featured their daily activities such as planting trees and raising chickens.
“The farmers did not go to professional schools, and they just painted whatever they felt like painting,” Lu says. “They painted their hearts and souls.”
The farmers painted on the walls surrounding firewood stoves and on clay, Lu adds.
Born in a rural family in Jinshan, Lu started developing an interest in painting when he was just 5 years old.
“I became sick when I was 5 years old, and I stayed in hospital for treatment for about five or six years,” he recalls. “During my time in the hospital, I enjoyed reading comic books, and I took to painting the pictures from the books as a hobby.”
When he finally recovered, he went to school, and his talent for painting amazed his teachers and classmates. By the age of 17, Lu had become a well-known painter in his
hometown of Lyuxiang township. In 1989, he joined Shanghai’s Jinshan farmers’ painting institute and began to hone his skill as a professional painter.
“I just love the style of the farmers’ paintings because they resemble
everything I saw as a kid while growing up in the countryside,” he says.
Two years after joining the institute, Lu crafted his maiden work that featured a rural town covered in snow. The painting was such a huge success that even a famous actor in Hong Kong demanded a copy for their collection.
“I was inspired,” he says. From 1994 to 1995, Lu launched his own exhibitions of farmers’ paintings across the world, with his works displayed in countries including Japan, India and the United States.
While his career as a painter skyrocketed, Lu stayed humble to his roots and the conviction to promote the traditional art to the outside world. In 2006, with the money he made from his works, Lu built a rural art museum in his hometown, which allowed professional painters and children alike to learn about the history and artistic value of Jinshan farmers’ art.
“I wanted to concentrate on passing on the art, and I also wanted to live in the countryside,” he says.
To further promote the art form, he has toured widely throughout Europe and the world. He held many painting exhibitions in France, Portugal and Spain.
“As a Chinese artist, I wanted to
make our own culture known to the world,” he says.
To help painters like Lu promote the traditional art, local authorities in Shanghai have offered a variety of supportive measures.
“We provide professional training sessions to farmers who wish to learn to paint each year,” says Zhang Liming of the Shanghai Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center.
Government authorities have also launched a project that brings the art to schools so that the younger generations can learn about this genre of painting as well.
“Jinshan farmers’ paintings are quite unique,” Zhang says. “For example, the apples in the paintings are usually very big, to the point where they do not appear proportional. This is because the apples are a symbol of harvest, and the farmers want their harvests to be the biggest.”
Some companies are also promoting the paintings by putting them on souvenirs such as teacups, fans, silk scarves and cushions.
The farmers’ paintings depict the sweetness, sourness, bitterness and spiciness of their lives, and it is worth promoting, Lu says.