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In the place directly opposite the gate of Rong Bao Zhai Contemporary Art Museum, there is a work called "Ten Thousand Miles of Mountains and Seas" on display.
Its author is Cao Jun, a Chinese artist in the United States.
Described by United Nations officials as "the world's most influential Chinese artist", Cao Jun's creative style ranges from "New Song Dynasty" paintings, such as "Ten Thousand Miles of Mountains and Seas", to traditional Chinese ink paintings, gongbi paintings, and splash paintings.
There are also Western abstract paintings with strong visual colors.
In 2013, he won the Gold Medal and the Jury Prize at the Salon des Beaux-Arts International in Paris, France.
In 2019, he exhibited at the Boston College Museum in the United States.
In 2020, his work "Tide" was exhibited at the Nassau County Museum of Art in the United States, along with works by Picasso, Matisse, Klein, and Gilot.
Cao Jun was born in 1966 in Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, China, his father was the principal of a local primary school, and there were many teachers in the school who wrote calligraphy very well.
However, Cao Jun's parents hoped that Cao Jun could learn mathematics, physics and chemistry to be admitted to university, they applied for him to apply for the Shandong Institute of Mining Engineering, in 1985, Cao Jun came to the Shandong Mining Institute at the foot of Mount Tai to study, and after graduation entered the Taishan Management Committee to work, but Cao Jun still likes to copy the works of ancient Chinese painting masters.
In 1992, he officially entered the world of Chinese painting under the tutelage of the famous Chinese painter Feng Dazhong, and his works won the highest award at the Shandong Gongbi Painting Exhibition.
In 1999, Cao Jun went to the Central Academy of Fine Arts for further study, and his academic performance was very good, and his works were shortlisted for the 2nd National Flower and Bird Painting Exhibition and exhibited at the National Art Museum of China. In 2002, he and his family immigrated to New Zealand to think about their own artistic direction.
New Zealand is a beautiful country of islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, and the surrounding sea is dotted with different colors, some of which glisten in the sun like tiny gems, and these scenes are reflected in Cao Jun's eyes, which gives him a new creative passion.
Combining Chinese painting methods with Western color techniques, Cao Jun has created a series of abstract works that he has titled the "Universe" series, in which he tells the story of his own mental activity when he sees New Zealand's natural landscapes.
In 2013, an international art salon was held in Paris, France, and Cao Jun's "Universe" series won the gold medal and the jury's award, and Cao Jun was among the world's first-class artists.
However, Cao Jun hopes that one day he can let Western society understand the value of traditional Chinese painting through his own efforts. After the Paris International Art Salon Exhibition, Cao Jun immigrated to New York, USA, where he frequently visited major museums around the world and made a clear combing of various schools of painting in history.
He combined splashing color and fine brushwork to create a new style of works, in which the artistic conception of the Song Dynasty aesthetic Gao Gu was reflected, and at the same time, the great culture and great care were expressed.
After these paintings were printed, many people attracted attention, including Steven Clark Rockefeller II, the fifth-generation head of the Rockefeller family, an American oil tycoon.
Another is Celis, a well-known professor of philosophy at Boston College in the United States.
Celis believes that the way in which ideology exists in Eastern philosophy can be seen from these works of Cao Jun, he wrote a research report "Cao Jun's Art under the Framework of Philosophy", and introduced Cao Jun's works to the 12th International Congress of Philosophy in Iceland. After more than four years of research and preparation, in 2019, a special exhibition titled "Cao Jun: Hymns of Nature" opened at the Boston College Museum, where more than 40 aesthetic professors and art critics from around the world discussed the oriental aesthetics presented in Cao Jun's works.
After the exhibition, the articles of experts and scholars on Cao Jun were collected and published into two books, which became the teaching materials for art majors in Ivy League schools such as Harvard University.
The success of this exhibition allowed Cao Jun to officially enter the sequence of Western museums.
In 2020, Cao Jun created "Common Home", a work for Steven Clark Rockefeller II that expresses the spirit of the Rockefeller family.
Although it has only been more than six years since the goal of entering the museum, Cao Jun has become a symbol for Western scholars to study Chinese culture, but in his opinion, it is far from enough to return to the expression of Chinese brush and ink, and his exploration is still continuing. This style of work breaks the boundaries of flowers, birds and landscapes, the boundaries of fine brushwork and freehand, the boundaries of heavy color and ink, and integrates Chinese and Western techniques such as focal perspective and scattered perspective, integrating personal inner interest and care for nature, showing the ancient and distant atmosphere of the Song Dynasty aesthetics.
Cao Jun misses his hometown very much, and after the new crown pneumonia epidemic stabilized in 2021, Cao Jun finally set foot on the soil of China, and he felt the warmth of his hometown after a long absence.
"Xiangguang"
"Driving the World"
"Meteorology"
Cao Jun's works quickly attracted the attention of the domestic art scene, and in November 2022, the time-honored Chinese brand Rong Bao Zhai held a solo exhibition for him titled "The Return".
Over the years, Cao Jun has been recognized by all walks of life, and he won the 2022 American Times Chinese "Top Ten People of the Year Award".
Cao Jun is a great admirer of the power of science and technology, and he is always looking for a combination of technology, civilization and history, and several of his works are displayed in an art museum converted from Shougang No. 1 blast furnace.
In this work, titled "The River of Civilization", Cao Jun expresses his thoughts on where human beings come from and where they are going, Cao Jun believes that art is a bridge for mutual learning between civilizations, and as an artist, it should be the responsibility to call on people to interact in the process of civilization exchange, no matter which race they belong to, which country they belong to, and the fruits of these civilizations belong to everyone.
(Source: CCTV Chinese International Channel)
About the Artist
Cao Jun is a distinguished professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (International College), a doctoral supervisor of Chinese painting at Communication University of China, and an artist in the United States. He has won the gold medal of the Louvre International Art Salon in Paris, and the title of outstanding artist in New York and Los Angeles. His works have participated in the 13th National Art Exhibition in Beijing and other important exhibitions in China. He has held more than ten solo exhibitions at the National Art Museum of China, the Boston College Art Museum, and Beijing Rongbaozhai. His representative works have been included in the textbooks of Chinese and American universities, as well as "Rong Bao Zhai Painting". The work "Spring News" is hung in the Great Hall of the People; His works such as "Dutch Incense" have been exhibited in the New Zealand Parliament and embassies of many countries.