Preface
Tibet located on the periphery of the country and the roof of the world is an open and secluded place. It is the cradle of a splendid and sophisticated culture, as well as magnificent and mysterious art styles. With their faiths and ideals, flocks of enthusiastic young people of Mainland China resolutely left for the periphery of the nation 40 years ago. There, they bonded with the sacred mountains and lakes, lived with the Tibetan locals, and integrated themselves into the old but marvellous Tibetan culture. Han Shuli is a excellent example of this. Since his move to Tibet in 1973, he had taken root in this pure land on the plateau.
In the early 1980s, Han came to the fore in the art world with his master graduation work Spang-rgyan Me-tog (Flowers of the Grassland). The comic strip gives a perfect and appropriate portrayal of the folktale Spang-rgyan Me-tog, with its combination of ancient colour pottery patterns, Han Chinese portraits and Tibetan totem symbols presented through Chinese traditional heavy-coloured painting technique with various textures of modern art. This artistic style has henceforth formed the basis of Han’s artistic creations in later years.
Unsatisfied with the success of Spang-rgyan Me-tog, he continued his artistic exploration with different creative elements. In lieu of simply appropriating Tibetan Buddhist elements, the artist embedded the content of thangka paintings and relevant cultural symbols into his heavy-coloured canvas paintings in line with the concepts that gave rise to the literati paintings of ancient central China. He made brocade patchworks with processed old silk fabric collected from historical corners in an attempt to bridge the Han culture in a historic context with Tibetan religious and secular lives. His black-based ink paintings, created with his traditional painting materials and by reference to the painting techniques of black-based Tibetan frescos, emanate an air of mystery marking Tibetan temple decorations. The roles of the black and white colours in typical Chinese ink paintings are exchanged in this distinctive type of artworks, which are now recognised as ‘Han’s black paintings’ at home and abroad.
Most of his works adopt themes that involve educating and inspiring community members, focusing more on preaching and promoting virtues than encouraging punishment of the wicked.
Whenever he talks about his creations, this leading painter of Tibetan contemporary art remains grateful for what he has learnt from the simple kindhearted Tibetans and their profound culture. Tibet has nurtured him and in return, he has devoted himself to inheriting its arts. For years Han has been striving to identify and cultivate artistic talent as a leader of Tibet Federation of literary and Art Circles, Tibet Artists Association, Tibet Academy of Painting among other institutions. He has also taken charge of the ‘100 Thangka Project’ to facilitate the growth of the Tibetan contemporary art circle, and promoted the art by fostering exchanges between the art circle and the outside world.
This Tibet-based painter specialised in fusing different cultures and forms of art has clung to his artistic root all along, with his modesty, kindness and open-mindedness echoing Macao’s culture essence.
Macao foundation, which has dedicated itself to pushing forward the city’s cultural and artistic development and exchanges with the other countries and regions, intends to treat the Macao audience with this visual and aesthetic feast, the exhibition Tibet Art Works of Han Shuli (Macao), while expecting them to feel the painter’s perseverance in his pursuit of innovative and find inspiration through his ‘soul-cleansing’ art works.
Wu Zhiliang