Life＇s Common Threads

By Barbara Coyner Art of the West Sep/Oct.2004.

　　Calling two countries home and feeling deep connections to both,Zhang Wen Xin returns to China each year to paint in hopes of portraying the personal sides of his native land.He might journey to Mongolia to watch a regional celebration with its horses and pageantry,or he might travel to a remote island near Taiwan to paint the inhabitants as they handcraft traditional wooden boats.

　　For months,Zhang will live on his native soil,savoring the famliar flavors,spending time with his wife,Chai Ding Fang,a craft arts professor,and visiting with his son,an artist who still lives in the homeland.Then he will pack his bags,return to Albuquerque,New Mexico,and step back into his American shoes,Having immigrated to the United States in 1987,Zhang today values both his worlds and uses his art to encourage better understanding between his adopted home and his birthplace.His world perspective is unique and ,during his 76 years,he has witnessed political upheaval,econcomic experiments,and amazing social change.

　　Zhang focuses on the faces of the people and the storiesconveyed through their expressions.By capturing the everyday people doing ordinary things,he elevates them as actors in a bigger story,linking nation to nation through the common threads of life.

　　“Many Chinese artists come to the United States and want to paint the Western scenes,the horses,and the people here,”Says Zhang,laboring to translate his Chinese thoughts into spoken English,“But the more they understand their own country,the more they change their subjects back to Chinese,”Althouth Zhang Paints Western themes,he also has embraced the move back to Chinese subjects and continues to wander the Chinese countryside, painting its rural landscapes and people.

　　Zhang Wen Xin By Stanly cuba Southwest Art April 1992.

　　Zhang’s struggle to become a painter is rooted in his youth in pre-world war II China.In 1937 when Zhang was 9,the Japanese invaded Tienjin and Beijing.He remembers the date as his coming of age and a time of commitment to his country.

　　Zhanb’s exposure to the lifestyle and art of the West convinced him that there was a need for a new art in China.

　　Contributing to Zhang’s belief in art reform was Chinese writer Lu Xun(1886-1936).