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SHAO XINsheng BIOGRAPHY

Shao Xinsheng is a Chinese artist who emerged in the 1980s, during the "Stars Group" movement. He is noted for his provocative and controversial pieces, including "Memory" "Tempest" and "The Designer” Shao was born on apr.1, 1957, in shanghai China. He spent most of his early life in Shanghai and Beijing, where he became part of the “Star Group” and was known for his variety of accomplishments. Over a 40-year career, he created many important artworks and was committed to radical politics in pursuit of a more democratic future, he joined the “Stars Group” movement in 1980. His work has been exhibited around the world, collected by museums, institutions and private collectors . The “Star group was primarily active between the years 1979 and 1983 .It was disbanded in 1983 by Chinese government. Yet the founding members maintained a close relationship between them, organizing regular Group shows, The Stars: Ten Years, 1989 (Hanart Gallery, Hong-Hong and Taipei), Demand for Artistic Freedom, The Stars 20 Years, 2000 (Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo) and a retrospective exhibition in Beijing in 2007: Origin Point (Today Art Museum, Beijing). Shao’s accomplishment was brought the star group movement to other cities as he organized the star group exhibition at Zhongshan Park in Shanghai in 1980, known as first non government organized art exhibition in Shanghai after Cultural Revolution.

A Brief Analysis of the Art of Shao Xinsheng

Shao Xinsheng started his creation of painting in the early 1980s of the 20th century and so far it has been a span of over thirty years. The painting style of Shao Xinsheng is fairly diverse, comprising realistic, expressionistic, impressionistic, conceptual, etc. Roughly speaking, his early creation mainly focused on academic realistic expression while effectively absorbing the expressing vocabulary of Western modern paintings, and took an initial shape of his own style. Shao Xinsheng completely abandoned the academic conventions of creation at the beginning of the 1990s, he ushered a new path in the traditions of post French impressionism and strived to find a new development path between impression——expression. Since 2006, the painting of Shao Xinsheng emerged new changes. The distance perception raised from changes in style is generated from the transformation of artist’s creative concept. One the one hand, he resolutely stayed away from the reference frame of Western modern art, in particular seeking to surpass the existing Western form expression system and trying to open the distance; on the other hand, he emphasized the internal cultural concept and deep cultural appeal of works, his painting art still maintained a clear developing vein. We need to carry out a brief retrospect and combing of the creating process of Shao Xinsheng in order to get an in-depth interpretation of his paintings.

( I ) historical reasons in China and the impact brought by the Great Cultural Revolution at that time, young Shao Xinsheng lived in a lonely and helpless environment with poor information, thus the art-pursuing course of Shao Xinsheng at his early age was rather harsh. Nevertheless, the pains and setbacks he suffered on schooling path had by no means cut his passion for art, contrarily they shaped his perseverant and courageous character. In the early 1980s, he determinedly joined The Stars Art in Beijing and promoted art diversification and freedom of artistic expression; meanwhile, he introduced the artistic ideas of The Stars Art into the young artists circle of Shanghai and further organized the first outdoor unofficial art exhibition with seven other artists in Shanghai, which laid a foundation for the future art liberalization of Shanghai, “just like opening a window of liberty…” (Quoted from the remarks on this exhibition by Xinmin Evening News then). However, this art exhibition was removed ahead of time under the pressure of authorities on account of Chinese political air at that time. In 1985, Shao Xinsheng was admitted to Tokyo Metropolitan University with excellent results. For him, Tokyo Metropolitan University meant a brand-new starting point for his artistic career. He received systematic and standardized academic trainings which mainly focused on issues of solving modeling and tones. Mr. Matsui was in charge of teaching oil painting creation and he had exerted deep enlightenment on Shao Xinsheng as well as a sense of urgency for finding one’s personal style. “I think his works are quite “sunny” and the most critical reflect he brought me is: sometimes it might not necessarily be the best solution to go directly involved in the current social issues, instead, the expression with a strong sense of forms Mr. Shao adopted as well as using bright color and naive shapes can better touch our hearts. In my view, the artistic outlook of Mr. Matsui is very distinct and impressive among the old artists of that generation, which is valuable.” For Shao Xinsheng, it was vitally important to recognize the importance of artistic form and body language in creation, for it laid preliminary theoretically preparations for his conscious integrating Western modernist vocabulary into paintings later. However, what truly made him ponder the issue of personal style and language transformation mainly initiated from his own learning insight. By then, he had felt tired of academic teaching model for it lacked vigor and had too many conventions restricting free expression of personal emotions, he ever said: “Sometimes I am not willing to enter my studio, just feels like everyone is dawdling there, fundamentally it might be related to my own character, I prefer something straightforward that keeps developing ahead.” Shao Xinsheng wished to integrate expressive factors in his works which derived not only from heart’s yearning, but also the cultural driving force of that era. After all, the discussion regarding formal beauty originated in the late 1980s and the debate launched by art world around “self-expression” in 1982 could both provide a reference system in art history for the creation by Shao Xinsheng in that stage. One the one hand, the advocacy of formal beauty of art urged art to return to its identity thus providing a theoretical basis for art’s getting rid of the shackles of politics, literature and religion; on the other hand, the highly praise of “self-expression” liberated the creativity of artists, making personalized style construction as possible. Actually, the abovementioned two artistic trends were all correction for the artistic forms in the Cultural Revolution, and the essence of art liberation is the liberation of human ideology and cultural concepts. However, there were no existing artistic styles that can directly appeal to expression for artists in the mid-1980s; hence, they needed to learn from Western modern paintings and complete transformation of Chinese modern art by virtue of conversion of Western modern languages. It was under this context that Shao Xinsheng carried out positive attempts in language and style and painted a batch of works with a significant touch of modern style. Just as he put it: “There were many other people’s reflections, and I found there was a batch of artists moving towards expressionism after post-impressionism in Germany, they started getting rid of the images seen in nature and their paintings are drawn out of inner heart; they selected colors that can express their feelings and draw the colors in their hearts, even green can be painted in red which was very bold.” In 1987, Young Mother and Daughter created by Shao Xinsheng obtained Award of Excellence in the First Chinese Oil Painting Exhibition held in Shanghai. This piece of work raised Shao Xinsheng to fame, “the fascinating sunshine and strong colors in Mediterranean attracted me, that kind of blue sky made one feel like the clouds would be pulled away by hand, and the robust color on people’s faces all evoked my strong creative passion…” In 1989, in a personal art exhibition held in Ranga Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan, Passerby won appreciation from Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and went into his collection. At that time, Shao Xinsheng was a rising “star” in art world and aroused great concern in the art world of Japan. For Shao Xinsheng, what’s more important was an affirmation for the creating direction he persisted, which also endowed him more confidence and courage in his later exploration of modern style expression. In fact, this rustic humanitarian concern as well as the yearn for truth, goodness and beauty of life were exactly a kind of refute or overthrow of the cultural patterns in the Cultural Revolution, namely to regain humanism and guard the existence value of individuals. On the other hand, the modernity of humanism marks the beginning of China’s modernization process in early 1980s, the significance of which is self-evident. In other words, such modernity is the first herald of cultural modernity in China’s modernization in the new period, and an advanced cultural spirit touched with modern characteristics. Certainly, what was different from the artists in this development vein is that Shao Xinsheng had expanded his artistic vision by several visits and study tours in Europe for painting art, which added an international perspective in his creations. “A strong expressing desire is the driving force which is also a guiding fire that can not be extinguished throughout the life of an artist; with the passing of time, the red flame will be refined to a pure blue flame with high heat and pure color, and that’s what we intend to achieve.

It was out of this dedication to art that he walked unusually determined towards the exploring road of modern art in the 1990s.

( II ) Shao Xinsheng developed a particular keen interest in French modernism after his study tour in France. Observing from the combination of artistic form and cultural spirit, French modern painting undoubtedly exerted potential impacts on his later creation. By retrospection we can see that artists Matisse, Picasso, etc. greatly influenced art world by discussing “abstraction and empathy” hiding behind forms in the early 20th century, which can be seen in the works of the artists at the time. In fact, the forms and expression of art works are not just visual, which should also be spiritual and cultural; the emergence of any form has the cultural soil that gave birth to its generation, hence, forms have their cultural attribution; except for owning lives, artistic form itself should also be connected with individual emotional experience of artists. Changes in artistic concept ultimately contributed to Shao Xinsheng’s Dreamer series (1997). Dreamer is composed of 6 works which were all out of his elaborate creation, and also the exhibition works of an important year award in Japan——Ueno Art Exhibition. Under the brush of Shao Xinsheng, “Dreamer” is not merely a simple modeling symbol but also a symbol of Western culture—— (III) Although apprehended by the aesthetic principles of modernism, an artistic work should be an individualized expression with original personal styles in the first place; however, if such individual style aims to demonstrate universal significance, it needs to be closely bound together with the cultural spirit of the age it lives.The works of Shao Xinsheng follows different development logic of art history with Western modern paintings, and the form expression in his works neither derived from the summary and induction of superficial world of reality, nor being the same as Western geometrical and structural abstraction, namely that forms are merely a product of rational thought. On the contrary, there bears the local Chinese cultural experience behind such forms as well as the artists’ understanding of Chinese and Western cultures. The famous critic Mr. Jiang Hong ever said: “for me, artist Shao Xinsheng is an inspiring phenomenon in Chinese contemporary art. He delivered a new message, which is a cultural vision different from domestic derived from artists who spent a long term study abroad, and he found his own way in the expression of art language. This approach is different from the general pursuing of artistic pattern of Western biennial exhibition since the 1980s, also different from the style of pursuing immediate profits of some galleries under commercial operation; to be specific, it is a kind of contemporary art that integrates something truly valuable and bridges Chinese and foreign arts, which is also an artistic path of sustainable development possessing profound cultural deposits.”