-When Painting Meets Chinese Opera: The Story of Artist Zhu Gang

"Every Chinese opera painting is an artist' whole-hearted devotion to the 
representation of a Chinese story." On August 30th , 2021, Professor Zhu Gang, 
Head of Shanghai Association of Art Museums, dean of Fine Arts College of 
Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts and famous opera painting artist, launched 
his first personal documentary worldwide. The documentary focuses on Zhu Gang's 
nearly 40-year career as an opera painter and tells the story of his 
relationship with Chinese opera.

Opera character painting is a unique art variety in Chinese painting. Artists 
record the characters and scenes of opera performance in the form of painting 
while observing the opera performance on the spot. By capturing the moment of 
opera performance, the story of Chinese opera is vividly expressed.

As an artist born and raised in Shanghai, Zhu studied painting from an early 
age under Meng Guang, a famous Chinese painter and art educator. During his 
many years of artistic career, he has been pursuing the integration of Chinese 
opera and modern painting, in order to express the traditional Chinese culture 
contained in Chinese opera. In his works, historical stories such as Lady 
Zhaojun Departs the Frontier, Drunken Consort, Farewell My Concubine are often 
the main characters of paintings.

In terms of painting skills, Professor Zhu Gang's works, through the 
comprehensive use of the characteristics of Chinese painting techniques such as 
plain drawing and freehand brushwork, have formed a style of opera painting 
with strong personal characteristics, that is, the perfect combination of 
smooth brush and ink, simple and clean pictures, and elegant ink and color. In 
terms of the philosophical spirit of painting, Professor Zhu Gang often uses 
white space in his works to express the emotions outside the picture most 
vividly.

In addition to skills, Professor Zhu Gang emphasizes "heart". He said, "Chinese 
opera painting has a history of hundreds of years, which requires an artist to 
paint by heart to keep the lasting charm of his works, " His creation for 
decades is the best annotation of his ingenuity.

Video-https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1604369/Zhu_Gang_promotional_video_releas
ed_in_non_Mainland_China.mp4

Source: Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts

Image Attachments Links:

   Link: https://iop.asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=399411

   Caption: On August 30th, Chinese opera painting artist Zhu Gang launched his 
first personal documentary worldwide.

   Link: https://iop.asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=399413

   Caption: Lady Zhaojun Departs the Frontier by Zhu Gang