Luo Zhongli

signed in Pinyin and Chinese and dated 1992

Asia Art Center, Taipei
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Brussels, Royal Art and History Museum, Luo Zhongli – The Chinese Soul of Dabashan, 9 September – 8 October 1995
Sydney, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Royal Art and History Museum, Luo Zhongli – The Chinese Soul of Dabashan, 1996

Luo Zhongli, Mountain Art Foundation, Royal Art and History Museum and Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Kaohsiung, Brussels and Sydney, 1996, p. 37

This work is in very good condition. There is evidence of minor paint losses along the bottom edge, 10 cm from the right edge of the work and very slight craquelure along the edges of the painting. There is no evidence of restoration under UV.
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The Soul of Daba Mountain
Luo Zhongli’s age of innocence tour de force: Children’s Games

“Whatever the times, so long as one creates with honesty, something worthy will be made. I chose art out of love. From the ancient times to the present, art constantly surpasses itself.”
– Luo Zhongli

Renowned as “twentieth-century Chinese art’s standard-bearer,” Luo Zhongli currently serves as President of the Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts, having played a crucial role in the evolution and development of Chinese realism. During the Cultural Revolution, art was relegated to serve politics and almost all artists had to wield their brushes to laud the achievements of Chinese socialism or praise the virtues of their leaders. During that period, gaodaquan (lofty-noble-perfect) add hongguangliang (red-bright-glowing) were dominating artistic approaches. At that time, Luo was a student at the Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts. By a lucky turn of fate, he travelled in 1968 to Daba Mountain Village, which opened for him a new creative vista.
Although the remote village was poor and life was barely at the subsistence level, people were simple, straightforward and pure, all of which impressed the artist deeply. Living among and interacting with villagers filled Luo with inspiration for years to come. He chronicled his daily life through sketches, recording villagers as they worked, played and rested, as well as their beautiful natural scenery. In 1980, Luo completed Father featuring an old peasant of Daba Mountain. Using an extremely realist approach, Luo filled the huge canvas with the face of an ordinary manual labourer rather than a political leader. Under the orange blaze of the hot sun, the old man holds a bowl of water as if he wants to drink from it as respite from his labours, yet it also looks like he wants to offer water to someone else. His deeply tanned face is full of wrinkles that testify to what he has endured, but his bright eyes show glints of wisdom, love and care as well as a candid acceptance of life’s difficulties. Father shook China’s art world and an entire generation, winning for Luo the high honour of First Prize at the 1981 National Youth Art Exhibition. The work heralded the end of an era when art served politics, also acknowledging and confirming creative freedom breaking from the shackles of ideology. This was a truly significant moment in history, with Luo widely recognized as one of the leaders of rural realism, gaining his rightful place in art history. 

Returning home—Nurtured by mother earth

“I retrace my steps in order to see the future.”
– Renowned Czech photographer Jitka Hanzlová

In 1982, Luo Zhongli completed his studies at the Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts. At his graduation exhibition, he unveiled his Hometown Series capturing ordinary village life, in turn expressing his deep passion for the subject. In 1983, his Silkworm won a National Silver Medal and was selected for the Paris Spring Salon. A year later, he pursued further studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp on a Chinese government scholarship. During his two years abroad, Luo travelled around Europe visiting museums and galleries, fully absorbing cultures and customs of different countries, voraciously studying the masterpieces from Rembrandt van Rijn to Pablo Picasso. These experiences led him to dig deep into his own soul as a Chinese artist to find his true path. At that time, Luo was gripped with similar sentiments as Wu Guanzhong. Both artists, having traversed half of the world, became even more convinced that real art can be borne only from a sincere connection with one’s home, country and bloodline just as “pine trees of Yellow Mountain, despite their pride and stature, could not exist except in the rocky peak of impoverished soil.”

In 1986, Luo chose to return to China. He turned down offers to teach in major cities, instead returning to Daba Mountain—where he had spent more than a decade—cutting himself off the rest of the world. Luo threw himself into the embrace of the earth, living with peasants, planting rice, leading oxen to till the fields, playing with village children, walking barefoot on the soil and climbing mountains to take in the beauty of nature. In that way, Luo’s determination to capture village life is similar to the French Barbizon school’s Jean-François Millet, who spent his life exclusively painting pastoral scenes, capturing the integrity of mankind and the eternal, tranquil beauty of nature. Luo can also be compared with Vincent van Gogh, who expressed his care and concern for the lower classes by recording the lives of miners. During his years in Daba Mountain, Luo carefully observed everything around him, attempting to chronicle with his paintbrush a tumultuous period and the role played by China’s peasants, so the rest of the world can empathize with their suffering and hopes (In the 1980s, of China’s 980 million population, 780 million were farmers). As Taipei National Museum of History director Zhang Yuteng once said, “In today’s Chinese art scene, perhaps no one can match Luo Zhongli in his success in finding resonance by delving into rural themes. Luo was determined to paint the harsh, routine lives of Daba Mountain villagers whom he knew so well, to communicate their everyday experiences and the many shades of their emotions. Luo used a simple yet rustic approach to record the details of peasant life, attempting to unearth the essence of beauty amidst an expressive style that is ‘unrefined’ and ‘simple,’ calling on the rest of the world to pay attention to these simple people, to respect and love such unrefined, innocent, and kind fundamental insights.” Children’s Games was completed in 1992 in such a historical context.

The beauty of innocence: An expressionist narrative

Luo’s rural themes brought out aesthetic values imbued with a Chinese cultural consciousness. By 1988, however, mere realism did not satisfy him. He sought to change his fundamental style, his brushstrokes becoming more expressive, turning broader and fuller, his lines more daring, sometimes even altering the shape and appearance of his subject matter. Although he still delved into rural life, the bitter agony and imposing nature of Father have dissipated, the atmosphere no longer desolate but the tones becoming warmer. These paintings also reveal the artist’s unique humour in presenting a narrative as if through an illustration series filled with energy and movement. These characteristics are clearly evident in Children’s Games.

In this work, Luo discarded his usual palette of blue and grey, replacing them with bright yellow and green. Two young brothers are featured here, one climbing up a tree, the other perched on a branch. As if personifying birds, the young boys’ round eyes are staring at the other side of the mountain, filled with wonder about the world out there, leading us to extend our own imagination. Their simple outfits characterise them clearly: the elder brother carries a large basket on his back, the younger brother wears an apron of batik cloth, all emblematic of peasant living. Their sun-kissed skin and strong arms balancing on the tree trunk convey that they are not urban but rather of peasant stock used to labouring under the sun. Although they are young, they exhibit a maturity in grappling with the world. Along their way to collect branches for firewood, something catches their eye, so the children decide to climb up a tree in earnest to have a good look. From the direction of the brushstrokes in depicting leaves, we can feel the light breeze and warm afternoon air lightly brushing across the land, along with the terraced rice fields as well as the beautiful blue sky tinged with gold. Luo has taken us to a carefree, idyllic landscape. His powerful yet short brushstrokes and smooth transitions of textures and colours strongly communicate the beauty of nature, mountains and earth as well as a good life that belongs just to the ordinary.

A silence that is rich and fertile

The landscape of Children’s Games evokes a light, fresh mountain breeze, recalling the joy and nostalgia of childhood memories with playmates. A type of stability and substance rooted in the broad, firm earth seems to infuse the pastoral scene. There, all things embrace, flowing and merging together. This work is filled with the artist’s love and lingering sweet memories of village life, reminding us of Gareth Evans’ poem Hold Everything Dear: “As the brick of the afternoon stores the rose heat of the journey / As the rose buds a green room to breathe / And blossoms like the wind / As the leaves of the hedge store the light / That the moment thought it had lost / As the nest of her wrist beats like the chest of a wren in the turning air / As the chorus of the earth find their eyes in the sky / And unwrap them to each other in the teeming dark / Hold everything dear.” By using his eyes and opening his senses, Luo records and documents our experiences as well as a slice of Chinese history, just as art critic Li Chaojin said, “Luo Zhongli’s rural realism is firmly rooted and recompenses. He understands the soil, has a passion for the soil, loves the soil, all of which are reasons why his works are so powerful. Moreover, even when he is critical, his criticisms are mild. From here, we see a Chinese intellectual growing up during tumultuous times expressing his conscience through art.” Luo creates works that contain true flesh and blood, touching people’s hearts.