“Son of Earth” Wang Gang’s Contemporary Art Exhibition and Works Donation Ceremony Held Grandly

The release date: 2012-09-25

the Great Yellow River (12.6 meters long, 4.4 meters wide)

“My creation did not begin until I was sixty years old,” says Wang Gang, a retired professor of Arts College of our university, also a famous artist in Henan Province. His works, with strong senses of times and unique features, arouse widespread attention and exert great social influence. In the course of his art creation, Wang Gang always spares no efforts to improve himself. Recently, he donated hundreds of his classic works that cost him more than ten years’ painstaking effort to Henan Art Museum, showing his respectable personality against the present flashy and impetuous society.

“Son of Earth” Wang Gang’s Contemporary Art Exhibition and Works Donation ceremony was held grandly in the Henan Art Museum at 10 o’clock on the morning of September 22nd. Leaders attending the opening ceremony include Dong Wenjian, an inspector of Culture Department of Henan Province, Zhang Jian, an inspector of Education Department of Henan province, Ma Guoqiang, the chairman of Literary Federation. They started the exhibition together with some special guests, the representatives of rural migrant workers. Artists, reviewers from Henan and other provinces and journalists from national and provincial media were present at the ceremony. Our university sent Du Jianhui, the vice-president of our university, Li Chunguang, the minister of the Publicity Department and the United Front Department, Hai Ran, the secretary of Youth League Committee, Yang Gang, the dean of School of Art and Design, and Liu Suping, the assistant of the minister of Publicity Department to participate this activity. The opening ceremony was held by Li Huifang, the associate curator of Henan Art Museum.

“Wang Gang perfectly combines solid and traditional realistic painting basic skills with the active and avant-grade art perspectives, focusing on the people in the bottom of the society, choosing rural migrant workers as the subject of his art creation, and painting with love. His constant dedication to art sets a great example to those who are engaged in art creation.”

“This event highlights three ‘firsts’: It’s the first large-scale exhibition to take the rural migrant workers as the theme of series creation, the first art exhibition that various creation skills including oil painting, composite materials, sculpture, performance art are employed, the first time that an artist is willing to donate a multitude of his important works without any reward.

Ma Guoqiang, the chairman of Henan Artists Association, and Yin Shuangxi, a professor of the Central Academy of Fine Art, who is also the planner of this event, both made speeches at the opening ceremony to speak highly of Wang Gang and the ceremony.Hua Jianguo, the curator of Henan Art Museum issued a certificate of collection to Wang Gang after both of them gave a speech.

At the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Mr. Wang Gang also donated an oil painting -- Grand Scenery which is worth millions (RMB) to Henan Charity Federation. The painting will be sold at auction by charity organizations and all proceeds will be named “Lao Wan Fund” according to Wang Gang's series works, which will be exclusively used to help the migrant workers and out-of-school rural children.

More than 200 pieces of excellent works of Wang Gang displayed at this exhibition, covering oil painting, drawing, composite materials, sculpture, portrait, performance art and other art forms. Among his series works “Lao Wan”, based on culture accumulation rooted in Zhongyuan’s thick soil, and inspired by his sincere and simple humanistic care for peasant worker group, avoiding the confinement of the narrating technique and overcoming the bound of specific object, show a strong sense of power and solemn nobility, vigorous, magnificent, and impressive, the number of which is astonishing, including oil paintings, sketches, composite material, clay sculpture and the performance art that exerts a wide influence both at home and abroad, such as Land relief, Earth monument, Wedding of the earth's sons, and his latest works -- The Great Yellow River and Tai Hang Mountain, all the works embody Wang Gang’s the deep care for the farmers, and the strong emotions for the people, for our nation, for the earth and nature and his unique and courageous hero complex. Lao Wan series works of Wang Gang, after the author’s more than ten years' hard work, the close attention from many social circles and repeated advertising of media, have become a cultural brand, rooted in Henan and exerting quite a influence both at home and abroad.

After the exhibition, Mr. Wang Gang donated more than 100 masterpieces including the giant oil painting - the Great Yellow River (12.6 meters long, 4.4 meters wide) and the Lao Wan series works to the Henan Art Museum. These works are not only the artistic crystallization of Wang Gang but also his influential and representative works, boasting of immeasurable artistic value and social value. Mr. Wang Gang's donation is his return for the land that had been raising him. Henan Art Museum will take these donations as a permanent collection to display and make the documentary research at the time.

In view of the significance of Mr. Wang Gang's donation, a seminar named “Son of the Earth — Wang Gang’s Contemporary Art Exhibition” was held by the Henan Art Museum and academic power from all circles of social groups in the afternoon of the exhibition opening ceremony day, on which a deep research was made on Wang Gang's works, and a new chapter of the Henan contemporary art research was initiated through this case research. The Henan Art Museum will also make provincial and international tour exhibitions to introduce the outstanding achievement of this Henan artist as well as the charm of Henan contemporary art creation. As one of the series activities of this exhibition, a college students debate titled whether art can change society or not was held by the Museum at the exhibition site on September 23rd, on which heated discussion was performed between the team from Zhongyuan University of Technology and the team from North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, the result of which fully affirms that the art value of Wang Gang's works have a far-reaching influence on our society.

The exhibition is co-hosted by Henan Cultural Department, Henan Educational Department, Henan Literature Art Association, and co-organized by Henan Art Museum and Henan Artists Association, Zhongyuan University of Technology, Henan Painters and Calligraphers Associations. More than 100 students of our college were presented as volunteers. The exhibition will continue to October 7th. (Text & Photo/Shi Yanzi & Shi Lei)