Artist Zhang’s creations have the stamp of quality
Print Edition
WITH just a few lines, Zhang Anpu precisely represents the object he paints. The space and blurring around the subject is a feature of Zhang’s work. No matter what Zhang paints — flowers, trees, tile-roofed houses, skyscrapers, or the scenery of downtown Shanghai and his hometown of Jiading, his work presents both reality and geniality.
Zhang, who had a career in newspapers as a picture editor, still produces posters, designs stamps and sketches as an artist.
Zhang learned to paint from an early age, and his skills were in great demand at the county culture center. He sketched nearly 100 Jiading villagers, and he still has these sketches at his home.
Zhang met his wife through their mutual love for painting.
“The county culture center was in Jiading Confucius Temple, where I got married and spent three years.” Zhang said, “That I often got up early and practiced painting with hard work grounded my future.”
In 1979, Zhang started work at the Jiefang Daily, where he learned to paint from artists Chen Yifei and Xia Baoyuan. “In those days, if I painted late, I would lodge myself in the office,” Zhang said.
He still remembers bringing dishes for his colleagues at night and discussing art with them while eating. At the time, Chen told him, for painting, the sense of shaping and forming is of great importance. That is to say, painting entails not only emotions and techniques but also pursuits of something new in design and composition. Zhang was greatly affected by Chen’s words.
To advance his painting skills, Zhang went to the Shanghai Library nearly every week in the 1980s.
When he retired in 2007, he could finally devote himself to painting. He traveled around Eastern Europe with a sketchbook.
Diligent paintist
“When others were still sleeping in the morning, I got up to paint nearby,” he said. When traveling, he experienced different cultures of various countries, always painting. During these 10 years, he filled over 100 sketchbooks.
In the 1950s, posters from eastern Europe were frequently exhibited in Shanghai. Their brevity, liveliness and humor made an impression on Zhang.
In the 1980s, foreign graphic design and posters were introduced into China. Zhang browsed related books and decided to have a try.
“The book that affected me most was ‘Figure’ from a Swiss author. I was shocked by the idea and composition of the brilliant works in this book, which evoked me the charm of the eastern European posters I felt in my childhood. So I began to try to paint posters,” Zhang said.
In 1983, a poster Zhang painted for Jiefang Daily, “Books are the Windows of Knowledge,” won first prize at a domestic poster competition. It was so good that it was collected by the National Art Museum of China.
After that, he created a lot of posters, with his painting style evolving to lend his work a stronger sense of the times and gradually departing from the traditional model.
In the early 1990s, Zhang had abandoned the style of realism and turned over to decorative art. In the mid-1990s, the application of computers in the design of fine arts made it possible for Zhang to almost depart from drawing by hand. He started to pursue more innovation of form and changing concepts.
Zhang’s style evolved with the times. He witnessed the changes of techniques, from hand drawing and spray painting to the utilization of computer production, and incorporated them into his style.
However, there are things that stay unchanged in Zhang’s posters — people. People are always his main subject. From realistic and symbolic figures and images with decorative interests to the post-modern art style, figures appear in his posters with different appearances, which can awaken people to notice the common problem of survival that all humans face.
In the summer of 2014, Zhang designed a series of posters for the first “World Cities Day,” including “Rainbow of the Earth” and “Rainbow Logo.” In “Rainbow of the Earth,” Zhang used two pigeons to resemble the eyes of the Earth, and buildings for the Earth’s hair. The Earth’s mouth is formed by a bilingual slogan — “Better city, better life” in English and Chinese — to welcome “World Cities Day.”
Zhang says his posters are magnified stamps, and his stamps are mini posters. The design ideas in both are similar.
In the 1980s, Zhang won lots of awards for his posters. In 1984, he was invited to design a series of stamps commemorating the 35th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China. His two designs initiated Zhang’s stamp designing career.
In February 2013, Zhang received a commission to design a special “Yuyuan Garden” stamp in less than a month. In about 20 days, Zhang completed seven works. He chose seven scenes of Yuyuan Garden as his theme and used pen and watercolor.
In July, his designs were adopted.
“It was unexpected,” Zhang said.
The officials were fairly strict about drafts. For example, if a building has eight windows, it couldn’t be seven. The style of painting is equally important, and it was the fresh combination of pen and watercolor that appealed. Zhang’s pictures broke a rule that people shouldn’t be depicted. In his picture, lots of tourists can be seen at Yuyuan Garden.
After the stamps were issued, Zhang received letters from many collectors. Zhang replied to everyone. “I think it interesting to pass on the warmth of culture in the world via my designs,” he said.
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