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Edutainment > Articles on Art > Heilongjiang Art School > Hao Boyi - born 1938

Plum Blossom in March, 1998
copyright Hao Boyi

Chinese printmaking is older than Japanese printmaking. Unfortunately China was absent in the international art scene for decades and Westerners know nothing or little about modern Chinese prints. This has begun to change rather rapidly. Chinese printmakers are now jumping into the art scene like a bat out of hell. Hao Boyi is one of them - a first class representative of a classical and elegant style.

In May 2003, we at artelino received our first Chinese prints. The information on this page is a mixture of what we have learned since then from our partner in China and our own very personal impression and experience after roughly one year. We are still in the process to discover a new world - art works close to Japanese prints, yet very different and very exciting. And in the meantime we have become more fluent in pronouncing Chinese names without biting into our Bavarian, American and Japanese tongues.

The Career of Hao Boyi

• 1938 - Born in Shangdong Province, China.
• 1960 - The artist took a course at Luxun Academy of Art in Shenyang.
• 1986 - Copper Prize of the National Art Exhibition, the Excellent Works Prize of the National Engraving Exhibition and a first prize of the Suzhou Water Color and Woodcut Invitation Exhibition.
• 1988 - Gold medal of Japanese-Sino Art Exchange Center.
• 1990 - Gold cup and silver medal of Japan-China Art and Crafts Association in Japan.
• 1990 - Two exhibitions held by Inspiration Art Gallery of Hong Kong.
• 1991 - Exhibitions of engravings by Hao Boyi held by Shenzhen Art Gallery and by the Association of Suzhou Artists.
• 1991 - A selection of engravings was published by the Chinese People's Art Publishing House.

Director of China Artist Association

Hao Boyi is a respected and well-established artist and the director of the China Artist Association. In addition he different other posts as chairman, vice-president and whatever of half a dozen Chinese art associations.

In our understanding of the Chinese art scene and the practice of bestowing titles and honors, this means that Hao Boyi is regarded as the number one among contemporary Chinese printmakers within the "official" Chinese art scene. "Official" or not, in our view there is no doubt that Hao Boyi is one of the very big names in Chinese printmaking and that the international esteem of his works will not differ from how he is seen in China.

Bei-Da-Huang Art School

The Moon Night, 1992
copyright Hao Boyi

Modern printmaking in China is concentrated on three regions/centers, which are referred as "art schools".

The establishment of these art school has to our knowledge nothing to do with any state-controlled institutions or promotions as Westerners might assume. They rather came into today's dominant position because of talented, young artists that vigorously developed their own styles and even new techniques in woodblock printmaking.

The three major "art schools" are:

• Bei Da Huang Art School
• Yunnan Art School
• Suzhou Art Institute

Hao Boyi is the leading artist of the Bei Da Huang Art School. Bei Da Huang is a remote province in the North-East of China, known as the former wastelands. In the 1950s hundred thousands of young Chinese were sent to this remote province to transform the wasteland into an agricultural area.

The art style of Bei Da Huang artists is characterized by the landscape and the experience of its cultivation. Bei-Da-Huang is an area of huge plains with cold and clear nights. Chinese people say that even the night sky has a different color - a dark intensive blue.

Hao Boyi's art works reflect the nature of his home province to an incredible perfection. On some of his images you can virtually feel the cold. And on others you seem to experience the warmth that comes in spring time and brings nature back to life. Bei-Da-Huang has even a short cherry blossom season.

Hao Boyi's print subjects are about nature and the natural environment. Birds, cranes, bears, deer and scarce wetland and wasteland landscapes are his preferred motifs. And Hao Boyi is a master of a pure and simple, but elegant style. The principle of "less is more" has been a leitmotiv of Chinese arts for centuries.

A Mature Artist

The Feeling in a Marshland, 2001
copyright Hao Boyi

The style of Hao Boyi is elegant and simple. It possibly comes close to the stereotype expectations of Westerners about Chinese art - the depiction of nature and the whole world in a few elegant brush strokes.

Hao Boyi uses colors from vivid to pastel with many shades of brown. Cold colors do often prevail - often brought to life with some warm spots here and there.

Hao Boyi applies several techniques - woodcuts and engravings. He had learned the Japanese woodblock technique, which he uses for most of his prints.

The edition sizes are usually 50. All prints are numbered and signed by the artist. The prints are large in size as most modern Chinese prints.

A tip for collectors: We have encountered some earlier works by Hao Boyi from the 1970s and early 1980s. They are more realistic and do not yet have the degree of "brush stroke reduction". These prints have become very rare. If you should ever see them again offered in artelino auctions or anywhere else, do not hesitate.

Dieter Wanczura

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Heilongjiang Art School