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Sketching 100 icons who built the nation
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WHEN artist Wu Zhongyi landed in the United States in 1987 as the heir of one of old Shanghai’s capitalist families, he had no idea how to wash dishes.
“I brought US$45 with me, and soon the money was gone,” he says. “I had to wash dishes in a Chinese restaurant for 14 hours a day to earn a living. Perhaps for others that would have been an unbearable experience, but I felt proud and excited because I had learned how to wash a bowl.”
Born in 1958 in Shanghai, Wu grew up in a big villa in the former French concession, cared for by household servants his parents hired. The advent of the “cultural revolution” (1966-76) ended his comfortable childhood.
Wu’s grandfather was imprisoned for almost a decade. His family had to vacate their villa. The young Wu was scorned by his childhood friends.
Despite all that, Wu undertook a project in 2008 to paint 100 founders of the People’s Republic of China. His portrait list included generals, scientists and educators. He financed the entire endeavor himself.
This month, the artist donated seven of those sketch portraits to Shanghai University. Now he is busy creating a work that will be unveiled at the United Nations next September, during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit there. The content of the painting, Wu says, is still a “secret.”
The contrast between Wu’s passion toward China’s Communist Party and the hardships his family once suffered is striking.
“The ‘cultural revolution’ is over,” Wu says. “Just look how fast China has developed in recent decades. You have to have lived outside China to understand how I feel.”
Wu studied photography at the New York University, working at lowly part-time jobs to sustain himself.
He earned his first “bucket of gold” by painting portraits.
When living in New York, Wu set up a stand on Staten Island to paint pictures from photographs handed to him by customers. Most were baby and wedding photos. Sometimes he charged up to US$600 for one painting.
He also exhibited other artworks, such as photos of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Johnny Depp, David Beckham or scenic attractions from around New York City.
At the peak of his career in the US, Wu had several studios in New York.
“I never thought too much about money,” he says. “It’s not something that has ever particularly worried me. Even back in the 1980s, my watercolors were quite popular. I would often give US$100 gifts to friends going to the US. Money comes and money goes.”
Before going to the US, Wu had already achieved fame as a watercolor painter, with his own art studio at Shanghai University.
He traveled extensively throughout China.
“My parents were compensated after the ‘cultural revolution’ with a large sum of money,” he says. “But they didn’t buy a house for themselves or tuck it away for their retirement. They wanted me to travel because they thought it would broaden my life and help me in my art.”
If it were not for the sudden death of his father in 2008, Wu probably would have continued in his cozy life in New York. “It was a big blow to me,” he says of the death.
“I immediately jumped on a plane back to Shanghai. I realized how deeply my parents loved me.”
He now spends several months a year in Shanghai to be with his mother.
“After residing in the US for so many years, I started to think about the icons that represent China,” he says. “I don’t mean the beautiful faces of Chinese film stars. That is too shallow. Our nation has its heroes, with stories that need to be remembered by the world.”
With none of the “icons” still alive, Wu had to do research in books and old photos. It was a daunting task, but he never wavered. He decided to do his portraits in black-and-white sketches.
“It’s never easy to sketch a portrait,” Wu says. “It must carry a soul, otherwise it is dead. Believe it or not, sometimes it would take me a week just to sketch one eye and get it right.”
His unique painting technique, outgoing character and determination won the trust of the heirs of some of the founders of the New China.
Li Min, daughter of Chairman Mao Zedong, gave Wu a picture of her father for a sketch portrait.
“It is a very different image from what we are familiar with,” he says. “At that time it was taken, Chairman Mao appeared quite perplexed, uncertain of which road China should embark upon. Mao is a legend. I treated him with great respect.”
His portrait series was like a trip through a time tunnel, Wu says.
“True, most of the names are familiar to us and their achievements are well-known by all,” he says. “But one might have different interpretations of them. I re-read their histories. When I was a small boy, they were superheroes in my eyes. But now, I try to see them as ordinary people with the same emotions as the rest of us. They were not invulnerable, and they sacrificed a lot too.”
Wu says that he plans to complete the sketch project in 2021, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, and hopes he can mount a global tour of the works.
“These people are the spirit of China,” he says. “They are icons of the country seen through a humanistic angle.”
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