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Hao Boyi
copyright Hao Boyi

Hao Boyi, born 1938, is the president of Beidahuang (Harbin) Artists Association and a deputy of Beidahuang Woodblock Prints, which is the most important school of Chinese prints. With his woodblock prints, he has built a fresh and elegant art world for us.

From his artworks we can feel the philosophy of Chinese traditional culture, which calls for replacing complexity by simplicity. Hao uses his extractive printmaking skill to draw an amorous landscape of the North, vivid and exuberant flowers or lovely animals. And they all compose a lyric symphony, full of love for this land.

Beidahuang Woodblock Printmaking

The Beidahuang (Northern big barren) school of Chinese woodblock printmaking is one of the most influencing and characteristic schools in China. Hao Boyi has worked in the North for several decades. Bivouacking on the wasteland, he enjoys the pleasure of creating, because he deeply loves this earth and the people who live there.

Both the artwork of his early and of the current period took root of this land, that is so full of folkloristic color. The sincere love for this earth, gives him the spirit of creating, as Hao Boyi says:

Small Flowers, 1986
copyright Hao Boyi

"I strongly feel life. It makes me present... Life goes on at its own rhythm. Life calls me to create ceaselessly."

For many years, national and international art critics have characterized his artworks as elegant, genial, amiable and fresh - although his early artworks express the vigor of combat. This conception comes from his firm and mild character, his plain and simple personality, and also from some traditional spirit of our national fine art.

Shen Chongsai, the critic of Qing dynasty said in his art book:

"All the lines in the image are the lines that cannot be left out; all the Chinese ink in the image is ink that cannot be avoided."

That means that the intention can arrive at its goal without drawing. It is necessary to "transfer the spirit". It is a kind of connotation. If we cannot find this connotation in his early artworks, we can find a high degree of professional proficiency of this connotation. The presentation becomes more and more concise, elegant and fresh.

Hide the Scene

Fading Winter, 1987
copyright Hao Boyi

In our traditional paintings, "hiding the scene" is very important. It is one connotation of presentation.

"Hide more scene, and you'll display more scene. If all has been presented, that is superficial." (Ming dynasty, Tang Zhiqie)

Hao is the artist who knows well how to "hide scene". In his artwork Light Snow, apart from the mountains, he draws only two little deer. In Light Snow in Deep Valley he draws only some lines of snowy mountains. In Fading Winter he shows only a doorframe with a blue sky, a snowfield and several icicles. All is very simple, but not monotonous and it is not bare. It is rather full of amorous feelings and interest for this Northern fertile soil.

Small Flowers

What he wants to present in Small Flowers is larger than the glorification of mountains. The small flowers burst out of the frozen earth. Perky and curious, they look at the early spring of the Northland. And although they are alone, they are full of fearless confidence and without any discouragement. The picture seems to tell some philosophical view of life.

Hao Boyi is honored as a deputy of the third generation of artists. And he is noticed and welcomed by collectors all over the world.

As life develops and as the background of society changes, Hao Boyi's style changed also with the collectors' aesthetic taste. But he is not an artist who stopped in his development of form and skill. We have said, he loves his motherland deeply, and he cannot help presenting his feelings. He wants to surpass his early methods of creation, and wants to absorb some new style elements from folk art tradition - like woodblock new year prints and paper-cut.

Recent Woodblock Prints by Hao Boyi

Light Snow in Deep Valley, 1983
copyright Hao Boyi

People say that his new works of art become more and more simple and modern. This is indeed true. But these are only the formal changes. In order to show what he feels, he seeks to show the beauty of life. His simplicity is not the result of coincidence, but rather the result of a precise and elaborate design.

We can clearly see how his style changes by looking at his two artworks Frightened and Winter Sun. Both show the subject of deer. Frightened is also a pretty picture, but the composition is a little complex, and we can almost hear the noise when the artist cut the woodblock. But the image of The Quiet Field is very simple. Hao uses the natural wood grains to present the flourishing grass. It is so vivid, so extractive! And this artwork contains so many ingenuities!

We can see how Hao can use with ease the language of forms. The character of Hao's recent artworks tends towards implicative, elegant and serene forms. However his technique changes also with the intention of the design. Sometimes it is kept in heavy colors, sometimes in light colors. No matter which colors he choses, elegance always shines brightly and delicately in his artworks.

By Zhang Jiashan (editor of "Hejiang Daily" of Hei Longjiang province)
(edited by artelino)

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