Xu Chengchun - born 1961

China Prints - Article
Mr. Xu Chengchun
copyright Xu Chengchun

Mr. Xu Chengchun was born and has lived in Liaoning Province in the North of China with boundaries to the Yellow Sea and the Korean peninsula. The region is characterized by cultural tradition and a great wilderness landscape that used to be populated by nomads and animals of the North like elks, birds, bears, wolves.

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Wildlife

Mr. Xu Chengchun has devoted his artistic creations to the depiction of landscape and wildlife of his homeland. Often he uses surreal elements as if he wanted to underline that this world is threatened by extinction and is becoming more and more a matter of fiction.

Artist's Career

Mr. Xu Chengchun was born in 1961 in Shenyang city. He began his art studies in 1979. In 1985 he continued the printmaking studies at the printmaking department of Luxun Fine Art Institute.

Now, he is a member of Chinese Artists Association and editor of the newspaper "Da Xing'An Ling Daily". And he is a representative of "Forest Prints" in China.

Since 1979 Mr. Xu Chengchun has created more than one hundred artworks. These include Chinese traditional paintings, woodblock prints, illustrations and mural paintings and relief.

Exhibitions and Collections

Woodblock Print

Chinese Prints - Introduction
Spring on the Hill
copyright Xu Chengchun

• 1987 and 1989 - "Village of North Pole" was selected for the 1st Chinese Modern Print Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese magazine "Work and Study" collected this print and published it on the front page of the 12th edition of the year 1989.
• 1989 - "The Spring of Yanzhi Valley" was selected for the Chinese Contemporary Print Exhibition in Japan.
• 1994 - The woodblock print "Yo-Heave-Ho in the Headwaters" was selected for the 12th National Print Exhibition in Shenzhen city, China. And it was collected by Sydney University of Australia.
• 1999 - The woodblock print "The Lost Woods" was selected for the 9th National Art Exhibition in Beijing city, China. And this print was collected by Nagano Art Gallery of Japan.
• 2000 - The woodblock print "Song of Boat" was selected for the 15th National Print Exhibition in Guangzhou city, China. This print was collected by Guangzhou Art gallery.
• 2002 - The woodblock print "River in the Memories" was selected for the 16th National Print Exhibition in Nanjing city, China. This print was collected by Art gallery of Anhui province and Heilongjiang province.
• 2003 - The woodblock print "The Turned Back Family" was selected for the 2nd National Art Exhibition, Gold Colors Prized Artworks.
• 2008 - The woodblock print "The Disappearing Shaman" attended the 7th Kochi International Triennial Print Exhibition and won the outstanding prize. It was collected by Kochi Art Gallery.

Collections

Books about Chinese Art Prints
River in the Memory
copyright Xu Chengchun

Artworks, like "Freezing Season" were collected by the National Art Gallery, Guangzhou Art Gallery, Shenzhen Art Gallery, Shenzhou Print Gallery of Sichuan province and by private collectors from Australian and Japan.

Technique of Xu Chengchun

Mr. Xu Chengchun works in traditional wooblock print technique in combination with oil-based inks. The editions are very small and thus interesting for collectors and art friends who would like to see their purchases protected in value.

Images from Daxinganling

The images that the artist shows us, are from the most northern district of China, a mountainous area of 84,600 square kilometers (32,664 square miles) called Daxinganling. it is next to Inner Mongolia in the east and Russia in the north.

Daxinganling has an abundance of rather untouched nature of woods, rivers and mountains. Due to its harsh, frosty climate the area is sparsely populated by humans. Instead it is the home of a rich variety of animals like elks, bears, wolves, storks and deer.

The region has several natural reserves. The Nanwen National Natural Reserve is the largest. It is located in the east of Daxinganling Woods of Heilongjiang province. This natural reserve occupies 229,523 hectares and is the biggest marsh natural reserve in the north-east area of China. There are about 1000 kinds of plants, 216 kinds of birds, like white and black storks, red-crowned cranes and 49 kinds of animals.

Daxinganling is also the home of several ethnic minorities like the Elunchun nationality who live deep in the mountains.

Woodblock Print

Chinese Woodblock Prints - Article
May - Visit the Parents
copyright Xu Chengchun

The reindeer in China live only in the north-east area of Daxinganling Woods. They are semi-domesticated by the Yakute nationality, a small tribe. Yakute means "people who live in the mountains". The Yakute people count only about 100 persons. They used to make a living by hunting and raising raindeer. Recently there was a report in different Chinese newspaper saying that the Yakute considered to move out of the mountains into a city resettlement.

Dieter Wanczura
(July 2008, updated July 2009)

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