Zhang Minjie
Zhang Minjie won the Grand Prize at the Osaka Triennale 1994 Print of the 5th International Contemporary Art Competition/Exhibition, which, held by Osaka Prefectural Government, consists of three triennial exhibitions in three consecutive years, focusing upon painting, print, and sculpture. It is called Osaka International Art Exhibition for short. The exhibition is the giggest of its kind in the work. At this competion, the first screening selected 155 pieces of works from among 7,421 entries from 94 countries and areas. As a result of the second screening, organizers' prizes were awarded to eight works and special prizes to 14 works. All the award-winning works were chosen under serious and repeated discussions and elections. Thus, as the Grand Prize winner, Zhang Minjie won great honour.
His work which won the prize was "A Running Crowd No.2", which shows, in the form of a Chinese traditional folk dancing, various patterns of movements repetitiously, representing the dynamic state of the crowd by means of his excellent engraving techniques, producing unique and aesthetic effects. Zhang says, "My work symbolized man's unity and his struggles against the nature through a dancing scene." He depicts a world based on the alternation of matters in turns, suggesting man's development in his continuous struggles through the repetition and overlap in lines of a Chinese traditional folk dancing, thus producing sharp artistic charms.
This work is a perfect relief woodcut by excellent engraving techniques. Among his works, besides xylographs, his lithographs and oil paintings, though using different techniques, always represent characters as a motif, pursuing the special expressions of motion and motionlessness separatedly and the combination of the two.
Among his works of motion are "Galloping Horses in Front of the Distant Mountains"(1991), "Yellow soil"(1990), "Crowds and Dragons"(1994), which shows the running crowds and riders in dynamic state, "Spring"(1993) and "A Running Crowd No.1"(1993) thus reveal the voilent dancing people in harmony.
1959 Born in Tangshan
1976 Rescured during the terrible Tangshan Earthquake
1988 Admitted to the Print Department of the National Central Art Academy in Beijing, China Although just being the playing chess of the artist, their appearance of northern farmers seem to keep the flavor with which the artist wants to express its human feelings. The personality of his works is hiding and profound, especially expressed by the format and frame of modern art as well as the language criterion, combining the impression and shape of consciousness with other humanistic contents, making it more concrete.His works have very deep influence over history of China prints and his role in China prints can never be placed by others. |
