YAN ZHEN: AN INTRODUCTION
Yan Zhen is a Chinese poet, writer, painter and calligrapher.
Yan Zhen was born in a village in northern China in 1930. At the age of 14, he ran away from home to join the Chinese liberation movement. During his years on the battlefield, his mother died without seeing him again, a loss that haunted him for many years. After the founding of the modern China started in 1949, he built a reputation as an accomplished and admired poet. At 24 he published his first volume of poetry. Much of his work is characterized by a distinctive blend of patriotism, aestheticism, and romanticism, and has become widely known in China. He was regarded as one of the five “Great Young Poets” – a label for the handful of young, upcoming poets at the time who were seen as able to capture the essence of China in their works. But during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) he was denounced by Red Guards and sent to the countryside.
In May 1985, as China opened up to the world, Yan Zhen was included in the first delegation of Chinese writers to go abroad after the end of the Cultural Revolution, and visited a number of American cities, including San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston and Washington. He gave speeches at Harvard University, Stanford University, Columbia University, and several other educational institutions, introducing the early phase of China’s reform and opening up to the world, building a bridge of cultural exchange between China and the world outside. After he returned to China he published a volume, Doves and Tulips, in order to open a window to America for the Chinese people who were then enthusiastically involved in the early phase of the reform movement.
From then on it was through painting that he was to express his personal feelings. The vivid sense of color and light that shines through his poetry emerged in watercolors (and later, oils) that are dramatic, sensual and uniquely expressive. People who encounter Yan Zhen are drawn by the romantic vitality of his works, and moved by his ability to use his expressive gifts in describing and explaining his paintings. International attention is now beginning to focus on this unique Chinese artist whose work reflects a passionate and fiercely independent sensibility.
Yan Zhen’s first book of poetry – The Girl on the Huaihe River – was published by the China Youth Publishing Group in November 1955. Between now and then, he has produced more than forty books of literature, spanning from poetry to personal essay. A ten-volume, Collected Works of Yan Zhen, is also available.
For as long as Yan has been writing, he has also been painting. His work diverges from the mainstream of Chinese artistic practice, and instead of painting representationally, his images are focused on expressing emotional truths and philosophical questions. While Chinese ink painting is an influence, Yan Zhen’s artistic development has far surpassed any artistic genre; his work is a melding of styles and a meeting of east and west centered around the exploration of a true poet’s soul. In 2008, a three-volume catalogue of Yan’s paintings known as The Paintings of the Poet Yan Zhen was published. The series is comprised of almost 400 oil and watercolor paintings of an incredibly unique style spanning from near-abstract expressionism to surrealist portraits of imagined landscapes and figures. Yan Zhen has had a number of successful exhibitions; his works have been exhibited both nationally at the China National Art Gallery in Beijing and internationally, at locations including New York and Washington, DC.
Yan Zhen’s recently published long poem, The China Dream, is a prime example of his deep powers of observation, acute sense of intellectual acuity, and ability to combine political theory and the fundamental beauty of poetry; it ruminates both on China today and on the wider contemporary notions of beauty and spirituality. The poem has received widespread approval and positive reactions in Chinese society and on the international stage.
September 2014 during the transition from the 68th to the 69th General Assembly
Yan Zhen has invited to mount a two-week exhibition of his paintings named The China Story in United Nations
1984 Ink painting Solitary Plum Blossom included in the Calligraphy and Paintings Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Writers exhibit at the National Art Museum of China, which toured in Hong Kong and Macau and was organized by the China Writers Association.
1986 Ink painting Qingyin included in the The Painting Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Poets organized by the Poetry Periodical.
1988 Watercolor The Same Origin presented in the Painting Exhibition of Poets from Both Sides of the Strait organized by the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits.
Ink painting The Day Dreaming of the Ripe Morella Rubra and his calligraphy both displayed in the The Selected Calligraphy and Painting of Contemporary Chinese Writers.
1990 Ink painting The Late Autumn is collected by David Bruce of the Bruce family (David K.E. Bruce), USA.
Ink painting Sunflower collected by Douglas Paal, the head of Asian affairs at the Carnegie Foundation.
1991 Ink painting After Storm collected by American financier John Despres.
1991-1995 Watercolor The Beauty of the Withered Lotus was published by the Washington News in the USA, the international edition of the China Culture Paper and the People’s Daily.
Ink painting Li Bai Strolling collected by Marie Arana, the then literary editor of the The Washington Post.
1993 Ink painting The Mysteries of the Orient collected by Carleton Swift, a former senior American official responsible for Asian affairs.
His ink painting Naughty Little Bird acquired by the Australian Ambassador in Pakistan.
1993 Solo exhibition Modern Ink and Washing Painting Exhibition of Poet Yan Zhen in Washington.
1994 Solo exhibition Yan Zhen: The Poet’s Dream, exhibit of eight watercolors.
Solo exhibition Yan Zhen: The Dream of the Poet. Washington, DC.
1995 Solo exhibition The Painting Exhibition of Yan Zhen Poet organized by the China National Art Museum of China.
Watercolor An Unforgettable Song included in The Selected Collection of Contemporary Chinese Painting organized by the Ministry of Culture. National Art Museum of China.
Watercolor Autumn included in the Tour Exhibition of China Poems, Calligraphy and Paintings held by the Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Research Institute.
Calligraphy work The Lian River against the Moonlight exhibited in The Selected Calligraphy Collection of Original Poems Among the Nation held by CCTV at the National Art Museum of China.
Solo exhibition in Beijing at the National Art Museum of China.
Watercolors The Prelude to the Spring, The Autumn Farewell, and The Spring of the Mountain Huangshan published in the Wen Yi Bao, China.
Watercolor painting An Unforgettable Song included in The Selected Collection of Contemporary Chinese Painters.
Watercolor Autumn included in The Album Picture of China Poem, Calligraphy and Paintings.
Calligraphy work Ruzipu included in Collection of Calligraphy by Contemporary Chinese Writers.
Calligraphy Pray included in the Collection of Calligraphy and Writings by Chinese Poets.
Watercolors An Unforgettable Song, The Spring Love, Farewell in Autumn, and Return published in Shanghai Novel.
1996 Watercolor Overlook published in the China Art Paper.
Watercolor Mysterious Orient published in the China Worker’s Paper.
Watercolor The Dream Seeker in Hometown published in Poetry Periodical.
1997 Watercolor Stories in the East published in China Writer.
Watercolors The Great Wall and The Beauty of the Weathered Lotus published in Qing Ming magazine.
1998 Watercolor included in Commemorating the Return of Hong Kong art book.
Watercolor The Little Bird in the Chinese Wisteria included in the catalogue for the Exhibition for Commemorating 50th Anniversary of People`s Republic of China and the Return of Macau.
Watercolor The Moon and the Night of Qingye River and The Autumn Worship Ceremony in Old Summer Palace published in The Novel.
Watercolor The Little Bird in the Chinese Wisteria was exhibited in the “ Painting Exhibition for Commemorating 50th Anniversary of the People`s Republic of China and the Return of Macau”.
Poems and Paintings of Poet Yan Zhen exhibited in Canberra, Australia.
Watercolor Testament exhibited in the exhibition “ Commemorating the Return of Hong Kong”.
Watercolors The First Snow, The Late Autumn of the North, The Discovery of the Green, Boundless, The Dream of Poet, and The Beauty of Withered Lotus published in Youth Digest.
2003 Work exhibited in Poet and Readers’ Meeting in Kraków, Poland.
2004 Works of Yan Zhen published by Beijing Rongbaozhai Publishing House.
2005 Watercolors The Moonlight Kiss and Our First Song were included in the edition Painting of Contemporary Chinese Writers.
2006 Watercolors The Lotus Pool Against Moonlight and The Waiting at Night published in China Artist.
Ink paintings Dreams in the Past, Nowadays and Return to the Original published in The People’s Daily.
Watercolor The New Blossom of Lotus published in Guangming Daily.
Watercolors Spring of the Yellow Mountain, The Water and the HuiZhou Moon, Gaochang Ruins, and The Night of Shanghai published in Anhui Literature magazine.
Watercolor The Night of Shanghai published in the magazine Che Tian Che Di.
2007 Watercolor The Fountain of Glory included in Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Writers.
Watercolor The Upcoming Dream included in China’s Most Famed Paintings and Calligraphy – Exhibition.
Watercolors Tonight Tonight, Unforgettable Memories, The Beauty of the Lotus Pond in Winter, Forever Love, Scenery in the Mirror, Window, Dream of a Village, Village Against the Sunset, and The Tiny Bud of Lotus published in Poetry Monthly.
Watercolor The Upcoming Dream included in the catalogue China’s Famous Paintings and Calligraphy.
2008 A three-volume book of paintings published, entitled Paintings by Poet Yan Zhen.
Solo painting exhibition at the Fuller Building’s Neuhoff Gallery, New York. Almost ten of his paintings acquired by the Chairman of Shenzhen Development Bank.
2009 Poems and Painting exhibition in Shanghai.
Oil Paintings of Yan Zhen exhibition at Coco Lan Gallery in Beijing.
2010 History and Feelings – Yan Zhen Solo Exhibition at BT Gallery of Art in Beijing.
2012 The documentary Contemporary Chinese Painter – Yan Zhen produced by the Central New Audio and Video Publishing House.
“The People’s Daily” publishes poem and the painting, both entitled The China Dream.
2013 Large oil painting Spring Warms the Earth published in the People’s Daily.
In the same month the China Dream painting is also published in The Australian Magazine, alongside an interview.
2013 Oil works exhibition The China Dream at the Peking-Peking Gallery in Beijing.
2014 Ink works exhibition China in Ink at the Peking-Peking Gallery in Beijing.
Sep. 15, 2014 – Solo exhibition China Story at the United Nations headquarters in New York.