It
was through drawing that Cao Yong found peace and consolation in
those difficult years, and at age eleven his talent was recognized.
He began studying with the noted artist Yu Ren from Beijing, who
worked briefly in Xinxian. The shadow of ostracism followed him
even to art classes, but Cao Yong's remarkable persistence challenged
him to paint, and to paint better, each day. In order to buy art
supplies, he pawned his winter clothes in summer, his summer clothes
in winter, and often skipped meals. He painted on any material he
could find: scraps of used wrapping paper, newspaper, discarded
wooden boards. When his mother brought him a bundle of dirty cloth
which she had begged a shop clerk to give to her, Cao Yong burst
into tears of joy: at last he had canvas!
In 1962, at the height of the great famine in China, an extraordinarily
gifted child was born into hardship in Xinxian, a small town in
Henan Province. Cao Yong's family, already struggling to find
enough to eat, was suspected of disloyalty to the new government
simply because a great-grandparent had once owned land, real estate,
and banks, and because a grandparent had been a warlord. During
the Cultural Revolution, this background singled the family out
for harsh treatment by the Chinese authorities. Cao Yong's family
was ostracized, refused residency permits, and even denied food.
While other young children of his age started kindergarten, little
Cao Yong began working. At age five, he found himself ferrying
heavy baskets of gravel at a construction site. One day a rock
pit caved in, nearly crushing the tiny boy to death under the
rubble. Luckily, he survived.
Five years later, when Cao Yong was just sixteen, his family sold
their only pig so that Cao Yong could afford to take the highly
competitive National Entrance Exam of Art Universities. But before
he could reach the capital city of Henan where the exam was to
be held, his money and documents were stolen--and so was his portfolio.
Cao Yong, in desperation, made an impassioned plea to the exam
officials that he be allowed to take the exam; when the officials
relented, Cao Yong scored the highest marks in five provinces.
But it was to no avail; all the universities rejected him because
of his family background.
But Cao Yong was not defeated. A year later, he returned to take
the exam again; this time a recruiting professor defended him
and pressed for his admission to a university. Cao Yong was admitted
to Henan University, but only on the condition that he could be
expelled from the school for even the slightest misconduct. Again,
Cao Yong refused to be discouraged. Although he remained an outcast
in the ideology-dominated environment, he excelled in his art
classes. Despite constant persecution and several attempts at
expulsion, he received his BFA with highest distinction in 1983.
To escape the political pressure and to pursue his love for untainted
nature and humanity, Cao Yong, now twenty-one, volunteered to
go to Tibet, where he became a professor of art at Tibet University.
During his seven years in Tibet, Cao Yong immersed himself in
the spare beauty of the isolated highlands, and embraced the distinctive
Tibetan culture. With a thirsty spirit which perhaps unconsciously
divined a more fulfilling future, the young teacher once trekked
hundreds of miles over the Himalayas to the Tibetan border and
smuggled himself into neighboring Nepal, just to drink in the
air of freedom for a brief moment, before returning to Tibet.
In order to copy the remains of Tibet's ancient wall paintings,
Cao Yong visited almost every monastery and temple in the entire
region, and produced hundreds of paintings. To study the prehistoric
cave paintings of Tibet, Cao Yong, accompanied only by a horse,
a dog, and a gun for hunting, lived alone in deserted mountain
caves for nearly a year.
Cao Yong's legendary experience in Tibet resulted in a remarkable
series of paintings entitled The Split Layer of Earth: Mount Kailas.
In this series, the artist not only addresses the conflicts between
the physical and the spiritual, but also plunges into the deeper
layer of sociopolitical and religious struggles in Tibet as well
as in our world. In the spring of 1989, Cao Yong held his first
one-man show at Beijing Artist Gallery. Over forty intensely emotional
paintings shocked the Beijing art circle.
The exhibit was covered by China Daily, Beijing Review, Reuters,
Agence France-Presse, The Canada Post, Asahi Shimbun of Japan,
and other major international news agencies. Foreign ambassadors
and representatives of foreign business organizations in Beijing
attended the opening of the exhibition, and Cao Yong was invited
to lecture at the embassies of France, Spain, Mexico, and Bolivia.
However, Cao Yong's success alarmed the Chinese authorities. Beijing
police arrested him, shut down the gallery, then confiscated and
burned seven of Cao Yong's unsold paintings.
But while under escort to the police station, Cao Yong managed
to escape. With his fiancée Aya Goda, a Japanese art student,
Cao Yong set off on a perilous eight-month journey as a fugitive.
On the run through China, the couple was nearly killed in a car
accident. Constantly blackmailed by local officials, plagued with
serious illnesses, the two had to resort to begging to survive.
Finally, in 1989, with the help of the Japanese Embassy, they
were married and escaped to Japan.
This journey of tribulation was described by Aya Goda in her book
Escape. Published in Japan in 1995 by Bungei Shunju Publishing,
Escape electrified readers and critics, and was awarded the Grand
Prize for Non-Fiction from Kodansha Book Publishers, Japan's most
prestigious book award. Escape has been published in French and
Spanish; an English version is scheduled for release in the near
future.
In Japan, Cao Yong faced a new challenge: how to survive as an
artist in a free-market economy. To continue to paint his Tibet
series, as well as to feed himself and his young wife, Cao Yong
worked as a gravedigger and took small painting commissions. But
soon his artistic skill and versatility attracted much larger
commissions to design and paint enormous murals. Within a few
years, Cao Yong's murals adorned stylish commercial buildings,
high-class department stores, and even ceremonial sites in Tokyo,
Kyoto, and many other cities. In 1991, Cao Yong founded his first
company, C & G Wall-Painting Productions, and was soon recognized
as the nation's most honored muralist. Meanwhile, Cao Yong continued
to work passionately on his Tibet paintings, and many of his finest
works in the Tibet series were created during this period. His
work was exhibited in Tokyo's prominent O Art Museum, Shibuya
Gallery, and Gallery Bamboo, as well as in the Yunghan Art Gallery
in Taipei, Taiwan. Famous Japanese art critic, Y oshida Yoshie,
declared that Cao Yong's work astounded the art world not only
because of its outstanding artistic value, but also because of
its "profound insight and powerful impact on the world in which
we live." Moreover, Cao Yong was extolled by the Japanese press
as "an artistic genius of our time."
In 1994, searching for tougher challenges and an international
stage, Cao Yong emigrated to the United States. Inspired by the
free-spirited American way of life, the prosperous and energetic
society, and the spectacular landscapes, Cao Yong drove from Maine
to Texas, from New York to Los Angeles. At last he felt that he
could throw off the shackles which had so long weighed down his
spirit, and experience both literal and artistic freedom.
Cao Yong soon realized that the artistic language he had mastered
over the years could not effectively communicate his newest experiences
and emotions. Although his Tibet paintings once again won him
rounds of applause in this country's fine art circles, and the
world-celebrated Christie's successfully auctioned several of
his masterpieces for a large sum, Cao Yong refused to depend upon
past successes, or to repeat them. He was determined to create
and govern a new artistic language, even it meant starting from
scratch. To that end, he whole-heartily delved into the American
landscape and society--into city streets, restaurants, parks,
bars, small towns--in order to observe, to understand, and to
experience American life. Cao Yong worked day and night with extraordinary
energy. During his first three years in the U.S., he painted over
two hundred oil paintings, and each was an attempt to express
himself in a fresh way.
In 1997, Cao Yong moved from New York City to Los Angeles. The
brilliant sun on the powerful, rugged landscape of the American
West revived potent memories of Tibet. But Cao Yong's heart, as
well as his work, had already risen, phoenix-like, from the ashes
of his oppressive past. With the determination of a pioneer, Cao
Yong set forth, heading toward the higher ground of artistic maturity.
Of the moment when he painted Santa Monica, the work that marks
the turning point of his career, Cao Yong says: "To this day,
I can still feel the tingle I felt upon pouring my exultation
onto this canvas. As I painted nearly 200 figures reveling in
a spontaneous street festival on a summer night, I was likewise
celebrating in my own heart."
The sincere jubilance of Cao Yong's work has universal appeal.
Collectors and art dealers zealously welcomed, and continue to
welcome, Cao Yong's new art. In order to satisfy the rapidly growing
demand and to bring his art to a bigger audience, Cao Yong established
his art publishing company, Cao Yong Editions, Inc., in 1999.
Since then, The company has released four series of limited-edition
prints: Venice, Golden Coast, Romantic Gardens, and Hawaii. Just
announced is the forthcoming Paris series. His distribution network
has covered the nation and it is now expanding into the Japanese,
Canadian, and European markets.
Although audiences around the world respond to Cao Yong's remarkable
work with standing ovations, the artist remains raptly focused
on perfecting his art. "After all, painting is my life, and being
an artist is my fate," says Cao Yong simply. While in the past,
he vented great pain and anger upon the canvas solely for himself,
now that he has found freedom and the inner peace that accompanies
it, he is eager to share this with others. To Cao Yong there is
no greater reward than being able to bring to people the beauty,
joy, and love that his heart witnesses through his art. |
