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Edutainment > Articles on Art > Yunnan Art School > Zhang Xiaochun - Prints on my Mind

Zhang Xiaochun

Go Out - 1996
copyright Zhang Xiaochun

Zhang Xiaochun (born 1959) is a leading artist from the Yunnan Art School located in the South-Western province of China adjacent to Birma, Laos and Vietnam. The artist works in woodblock reduction technique, in which he creates images taken from his direct environment - mainly images of the people who live in this remote place.

Outstanding are Zhang Xiaochun's depictions of the Dai people from Xishuangbanna in the most Southern part of Yunnan. He uses a very specific style that the artist began to develop in 1994.

The following text is a personal statement by Zhang Xiaochun, in which he tries to explain how he came to woodblock printmaking and what kind of thoughts he had during each of his two different periods in style.

Original Chinese text can be difficult to understand for Westerners. We at artelino left the close translation, edited the original text in parts into a more westernized language, and shortened some parts. The artist may forgive us, if we should have missed the point here and there.

All images are copyright protected and by courtesy of our Chinese partner.

"Prints in my Mind - Brown Caprice"

"There is a smoothed woodblock in front of me. It sends forth a smell of trees from the Northern forests. The trace of time is left on the grain of the wood. A graver works hard and can change the direction of life by transforming a woodblock into a vivid object.

I chose printmaking as my career. I want to use it to record my dreams and feelings in every stage of my life. I want to record what inspires me to think and take action in nature and society. In order to see the true state of my mind, I seek for a language and some kind of comfort.

There is a group of young people who wanted to step out of the borders of Simao (explanation: a county in Southern Yunnan), and into the spotlight of worldwide attention. Reduction woodblock print is their language of communication.

In spring of 1987, I laid aside the oil painting brush and replaced it with the graver. Since then I have tried to practice my art in the form of reduction woodblock prints. At that time I was busy and torn apart between the creation of reduction woodblock prints and other activities. I was always feeling nervous and tired at that time. When I look back at my non-periodic art works, the unstable appearance of the pictures seem to tell my unstable state of mind and my emotional instability. It was like a conflict between dream and reality.

In general I can divide my art works into two periods separated by style.

• 1987 to 1994 - perceptual period
• 1994 until now - brown period.

The Perceptual Period

Zhang Xiaochun

In the Wind, 1997
copyright Zhang Xiaochun

The first period lasted from 1987 to 1994. I call it my perceptual period. With the impulse of youth, I intended to smash the bonds of traditional woodblock prints, I began to practice and explore the relationship between technique and the capabilities of artistic expression of the reduction woodblock print.

I fully exploited the capabilities of the reduction woodblock print. I constructed visual shocks by mixing the technique with the expressive means of oil painting. I created color compositions like a symphony and enjoyed the happiness of the creative process.

I live in this hot land where I was born and raised. It is a colorful world. In the villages I absorb the cream of folk art, explore the mystery of life and open a bottle filled with fairy tales.

I do not want to just show the local look to curious people. I rather try to unite the archaic element with modern style expressions. To reveal the primitive existence of nature and human beings, I expand the artistic connotation of the phenomenon of life. I put subjective red and brown colors on the white block. I fought with myself. I was tired but excited. I was depicting illusion - one after another. Under that condition, I created "Evening Flute", the "Last Comfort for Victim" and other prints.

The Brown Period

The second period goes from 1994 until now. During this time I thought in contradictions. When I would be 40 years old, I should have reached a stage of self-confidence.

I began to pay attention to the common people living in the border areas. I finally found the position of humanities and religion in my mind. I explored the reasons for the existence of human beings.

And I expressed the world in the form of reduction woodblock prints. I no longer created language. I rather went out to find symbols. I was looking for abstract thoughts in nature, and found sketches in a specific world.

I take characters as symbols. I let them say what I cannot say. I let them do what I cannot do. I let them find what I cannot find. I stress dramatic effects by shadows and light. I walk from the brightest to the darkest place, or I do the opposite. I let all kinds of symbols exist in my pictures and convey unreal images. I made unnecessary colors disappear from this world. My pictures are combined of hues and shades.

During this period I created the following art works: Under the Red Sun, Thunder Far Away, Dialogue In the Dusk, In the Wind, Go Out and others. I express my opinion through characters. I try my brown experience.

Zhang Xiaochun

Dialog in the Dusk, 1996
copyright Zhang Xiaochun

I always reflect long and intensively by myself in my quiet little house. I listen to the music of Enya while I carve woodblocks. I let my thoughts wander in my spiritual world. I forget where I am, and can no longer draw a clear distinction between old and modern times.

The most sentimental thing for me is that time passes like flowing water, and that life is short and bitter. So I pay more attention to what I can do and what I can paint and what I can do that will remain."

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Yunnan Art School