Wk 11 — Artist OTW — Student Choice

Duy Lam

Intro to Art 110

Professor Zucman

November 7, 2020

Artist: Luo Zhongli

Media: Painter

Website: http://www.artnet.com/artists/luo-zhongli/

Instagram: N/A

Realism

Luo Zhongli was born in 1948 in Chongqing China, despite Chongqing being more modernized today, Zhongli’s art paintings were more inspired by the rural parts of China. Zhongli himself believed that most paintings during that time were solely based on celebrities and important people, however, Zhongli would rather “[dedicate] that space to a farmer, symbolizing the commencement of the time of people.” Zhongli’s drawings were based on people and had a cartoonish style and more recognized realistic drawings.

In Zhongli’s most famous work titled “Father” which is the more realistic style of art, a picture of an old man in the rural part of China. The scale of the painting is 9 feet tall by 5 feet wide which is massive. For the lines, I recognized the lines that were painted on the man’s face which was meant to be the wrinkles. With the added shadows to the wrinkles, although I couldn’t touch the painting or see it in real life, the lines of the wrinkles made it feel as if touching it would actually feel real. The lines were neither straight nor jagged, but rather it was random and at the same time perfectly placed to make the painting feel real. The painting utilized many types of colored paint and mixed paint to create the perfect skin tone, color of the bowl of soup, and the clothing.

As previously stated, Zhongli’s inspiration came from the overwhelmingly popular celebrity art at the time and wanted to create pieces of art in the more rural parts of China. In all of Zhongli’s paintings, the images of poor farmers can be seen, because he wants to give them more recognition to keep the culture alive. These paintings give average Chinese people insight on how the Southern and most rural part of China is living.

In my opinion, Luo Zhongli’s paintings reminded me of the people back in my hometown, Bac Lieu Vietnam. Due to the paintings of the more rural parts of China, it resembles my hometown which is similar in regards to it being rural in Vietnam, with people selling fruits, vegetables, and meat on the street and food in the middle of the road where motorcycles ride back and forth. However, on the internet, Vietnam can be seen to have tall buildings, big restaurants, and movie theaters in the big city. My family watches Vietnamese game shows that popularize the celebrities, but can not forget the mothers, fathers and even kids working and hustling on the streets in my hometown, selling whatever they had available to make enough to feed the families.