Sources: All of the information stated in this article is based on reliable sources, and is detailed at the end of the article
With a primary school education and no professional painting training, it only takes 28 minutes to write "Sunflowers", knowing that it is a "fake", but the sales are very considerable, and it was even resold to Europe and other countries for a time.
Known as the "Chinese Van Gogh", the village where he is located has also become the "No. 1 Village of Chinese Oil Painting", creating huge wealth with both hands, but when he really came to the Van Gogh Museum, this migrant worker still sighed "different" again and again.
Zhao Xiaoyong, how did you do it?
I dropped out of junior high school and came into contact with painting by chance
When you hear Zhao Xiaoyong's name, most people may think of his nickname "Chinese Van Gogh". At this time, some people will definitely ask, which art academy is he from? But the fact is that he is just a migrant worker with only a primary school diploma.
Zhao Xiaoyong was born in 1972 in rural Shaoyang, Hunan Province, and went to Shenzhen to work at the age of 15. When I was working in a ceramic factory, I happened to hear my fellow villager Zhang Zhengjing mention that Dafen Village in Shenzhen could make a lot of money by painting.
But at that time, Zhao Xiaoyong could receive a monthly salary of 1,200 yuan in the ceramic factory, while the salary of ordinary workers was only 600 yuan. His fellow countryman Zhang Zhengjing also told him the truth, "If you paint, you may not be able to sell a painting in a year." ”
Stability and love in his heart, after some hard work, Zhao Xiaoyong finally resolutely embarked on the road to Dafen Village. The first time he stepped into Dafen Village, he witnessed the whole process of oil painting creation with his own eyes, and was deeply touched by it.
At the end of 1996, Zhao Xiaoyong made up his mind to paint, began to share a house with his fellow villager Zhang Zhengjing, and officially settled in Dafen Village.
The "Road to Transformation" of Migrant Workers in Dafen Village
In the early 90s of the last century, Dafen Village became a gathering place for mass production culture, where more than 20,000 painters gathered, and they painted every day in addition to eating and sleeping. Before they became painters, they were all migrant workers who had never been exposed to art.
In order to support their families, they picked up their paintbrushes and copied those famous paintings, although they never understood what art was, but simply "Van Gogh painted to survive, and we paint to survive." ”
The villagers of Dafen Village began to introduce the model of the factory into the studio, some were responsible for painting eyes, some were responsible for painting birds, and some were responsible for painting backgrounds...... It is such an assembly line painting that in 2005, Dafen Village ushered in the peak of output value.
At that time, 70% of the oil paintings in the European and American markets were produced in China, and eighty percent of them came from Dafen Village. At that time, the output value of the oil painting industry in Dafen Village was also as high as 279 million yuan.
However, the good times were short-lived, and the European debt crisis and subprime mortgage crisis in 2008 indirectly led to a sharp decline in orders in Dafen Village. The villagers of Dafen Village basically did not receive orders, and Dafen Village began to decline from then on. These villagers can only stop copying famous paintings and look for other ways out.
It wasn't until the summer of 2009 that Zhao Xiaoyong's fellow countryman Zhou Yong began to devote himself to original paintings and sold them to the outside world.
The success of his transformation also allowed the villagers of Dafen Village to embark on the road of originality. Nowadays, the enterprises in Dafen Village have transformed to the direction of e-commerce, mainly doing home decoration paintings, which are produced through the assembly line of the factory and sold to all parts of the country. The villagers of Dafen no longer have to worry about food and clothing.
The harder you work, the luckier you get
Zhao Xiaoyong's oil painting techniques were also learned from Zhang Zhengjing, and during the six months of study, Zhao Xiaoyong locked himself in a rental house every day, copying Van Gogh's works day after day. In the end, I was able to finish a "Self-Portrait" in 22 minutes, and I could paint a "Sunflower" in 28 minutes.
However, the migrant worker's paintings did not have any popularity, so in order to make a living, Zhao Xiaoyong carried his paintings to the local gallery to sell, and happened to be seen by a Hong Kong art dealer looking for paintings. Since then, Zhao Xiaoyong has begun to have orders and increased day by day, with a maximum of more than 2,000 pairs.
Later, Zhao Xiaoyong discovered that the Hong Kong art dealer was exporting these paintings to European countries, which meant that the number of orders would become more and more high. At the end of 2000, Zhao Xiaoyong began to decide to take apprentices, and his first apprentice was his wife, who painted "Sunflowers" and "Starry Sky", and his younger brother painted "Cafe".
Zhao Xiaoyong once said that he didn't even know who Van Gogh was at first. Nowadays, it is possible to paint Van Gogh's paintings directly on canvas without sketching, and when the order is at large, ten Van Gogh paintings can be painted a day.
In 2008, Zhao Xiaoyong, who had been painting Van Gogh's works for more than ten years, found that the number of orders was getting smaller and smaller. By 2009, there was not a single order.
A trip to Europe - weep when you see the real thing
Zhao Xiaoyong finally understood that simply copying paintings could not be sustained. He began to transfer his main business to Zhejiang, opening a gallery in Ningbo, which contains not only his high-quality imitation paintings, but also original paintings. Zhao Xiaoyong said proudly, "There, one of my paintings can be sold for up to 12,000 yuan." ”
After the documentary "Van Gogh in China" won the award, Zhao Xiaoyong decided to go to Amsterdam in the Netherlands to see the real Van Gogh in the Van Gogh Museum with his own eyes. But Zhao Xiaoyong's wife thought it was expensive to go abroad and didn't agree at first. But Dutch businessmen were willing to provide food and accommodation for Zhao Xiaoyong, and Zhao Xiaoyong himself only had to bear the cost of air tickets.
Since then, Zhao Xiaoyong has embarked on the road of exploring the authentic works. Along the way, Zhao Xiaoyong was thinking, where is the difference between himself and Van Gogh? I have been painting his paintings for more than ten years, and I remember every detail in the paintings clearly. When Zhao Xiaoyong really stood in front of Van Gogh's original handwritings, he realized that there was such a big gap between himself and Van Gogh.
And the staff asked him, "Do you have any of your own works?" It was this sentence that made Zhao Xiaoyong more determined to create the road.
After coming out of the Van Gogh Museum, Zhao Xiaoyong silently lit a cigarette and sat in front of Van Gogh's tomb for a long time. That night, Zhao Xiaoyong dreamed of Van Gogh. This led to the transformation and embarked on the path of creation. He began to paint the stone roads at the entrance of his hometown, his elderly grandmother, and familiar people and objects.
A trip to the village led to Zhao Xiaoyong's successful transformation, he became an original painter, and the villagers of Dafen Village, where he lived, were no longer obsessed with painting high-quality imitation paintings, but transformed into original paintings.
These peasants are no longer picking up paintbrushes for life, but pursuing art. We may all have experienced a period of numbness, but we need to know that this is only a transitional period in life, not the ultimate goal of life.
Reference: Guangzhou Daily: 2017-6-8: "Chinese Van Gogh" copied 100,000 paintings of Van Gogh The price rose from 130 yuan to 12,000 yuan
Jiefang Daily: 2023-4-10: The "Awakening Moment" of the Oil Painting Village From a copyist to a creator
Yangcheng Evening News: 2017-12-14: "Chinese Van Gogh": From copying 100,000 paintings to wanting to be original