Large Original Mixed Media Painting on Rice Paper Chinese Artist Jiang Tiefeng

Dimensions: H: 52.5, W: 50.0 IN

Jiang Tiefeng (China/Minnesota, 1938-)

Mixed media gouache painting on rice paper with a gold tone Titled: "Mother and Child II."

Artist is identified on Dyansen Gallery label on verso.

Provenance: Dyansen Gallery Dimensions: Sight size: 41" high x 40 1/2 wide. In a gilded frame measuring 52 1/2" high x 52" wide.

Born in Zhejiang province, China in 1938, artist Tiefeng Jiang is known as the founder of the Yunnan School of Painting. He began painting and drawing already as a child. Tiefeng Jiang's paintings are brightly colored, abstract pieces that often include mythology symbols and folklore of the Yunnan people, exotic animals (an Asian variation on the tropical jungle creatures of Gustavo Novoa) and portraits of the nude female form. He graduated from the prestigious Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1964, just before the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. On completion of his studies Jiang volunteered to visit the lush and tropical Yunnan province on the Vietnamese border. This visit to such an exotic Asian landscape was to prove a lifelong influence on Jiang's work. The Chinese government assigned him to create propaganda material, poster (including the iconic red faced poster of Chairman Mao) and sculpture, a job that brought him little joy. Tiefeng Jiang's paintings include a large mural finished in 1980 for the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. At night Jiang developed a style of his own. He was particularly focused on bringing color to his art &, using the influence of Chinese mythology & Buddhism, he created pieces with great symbolic meaning. He along with

two other artists, He Neng and

Liu Shaohui, founded the "Yunnan School" where the use of bold colour and imagery was embedded in the teachings. Jiang's career was able to thrive, even under the harsh realities of the Cultural Revolution. In 1979 he was commissioned by the Chinese government to paint a mural representing the Yunnan province for the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Jiang also illustrated children's books & cartoons. Ultimately though, Jiang's work fell out of favour with the communist government. "My paintings are not only pictures; they are also music & poetry that is bewitching, sweet dreams that are being dreamed."

During 1982 a National Geographic reporter writing an article on life in China saw Jiang's paintings. A selection was smuggled out of China, folded up in a National Geographic magazine, & brought back to the U.S. were they received high praise. A great example of Chinese contemporary art. Jiang emigrated to the U.S. in 1984 where his work has been shown in many public exhibitions. He settled in Southern California where he also taught. The spelling of his name varies I have seen it as T'ie-feng Chiang, Jiang Tiefeng, Jiang Tie-Feng, Tie Feng Jiang