Size: 21-1/2" x 46-1/2"

Circa 1980s

Edition Number: XXII/LX (22/60)

Condition is Excellent

Certificate of Authenticity is included

Gallery Retail: $580.00 (unframed)

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 CHA GUO JUN

Cha Guo Jun, one of China's foremost contemporary artists, began painting when he was a young boy in Suzhou, China.  Acknowledgement of his early efforts came in the form of reprimands rather than praise, however.  It seems his mother was a bit displeased when her son chose to paint his figures and landscapes on the walls of her home, instead of on paper.

Eventually, praise replaced those early reprimands -- once Cha began applying oils to paper. His mother encouraged his interest and he went on to study at the Shanghai Academy of Drama, where he graduated with top honors.  While there, he became interested in impressionism and, in particular, the use of bright colors.  The colors in his own paintings were elegant and abundant, and his classmates began referring to him as, "the color master."

Currently, Cha is an instructor at the College of Fine Arts, Shanghai University, and a visiting scholar with the Department of Studio Arts at the University of Minnesota.  Rather than teaching his students how to paint, however, Cha says that he teaches them to transfer their ideas and their imaginations to their paintings.  "But," he explains, "I don't tell the student what is a good idea and what is not, because in art, there is no standard on what is a good idea and what is bad."  Art, he states, is taking an idea and presenting it in such a way that the viewer is moved by it or amused.  "Picasso found that bicycle bars can be the head of a cow. It's a very simple thing, but not just anyone can discover it.  That is a talent."

While in the United States, Cha has also been developing his own style, one that combines Western impressionism with the traditional Chinese landscape.  His works -- in both oils and watercolors -- depict the mystery, quietness, and grace of nature through scenes that are hazy, yet romantic.  "The earth is obscure, secret," he says.  "The real beauty is a mental power that fascinates us and creates a mystical world in our minds.  Artistic creation is an emotional manifestation of imagination.  The created image is different from the natural world -- it is form given to a mental vision, it is substance given to the human soul."

Cha's paintings are in constant demand, both in the United States and in China.  He was invited to design a tapestry of the Great Wall for the United Nations, and his painting, Yellow Mountain, was placed in the Chinese Consulate General's office in New York. Many of his other works are displayed in private collections, as well as in the Art Museum of Shanghai.