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Li Jinzhuang
Li Jinzhuang
Personal Profile
Li Jinzhuang, styled Mowu, is a painter from Inner Mongolia and a National First-Class Artist. He studied under Zhao Sangbu and Wang Yonggui, specializing in landscape and bird-and-flower painting. He is particularly skilled in knife-and-brush landscapes and pyrography landscapes, and in recent years has achieved outstanding results in ink-wash depictions of horses, cattle, and sheep on the grasslands, earning him the affectionate title of “Grassland Painter.” In the summer of 2020, he became a disciple of Liu Ping, known as the “Number One Artist of Cicadas,” and his artistic skills were comprehensively elevated. ?In August 4, 2015, he participated in a six-artist exhibition in Tongwei, with his works collected by individuals and institutions. On July 9, 2016, he participated in the public welfare invitation exhibition “Honoring the Era, Inheriting Role Models, Caring for Heroes,” hosted by the Galsang Flower Charity Foundation of the China Social Welfare Foundation, and donated a piece. In March 2019, he participated in the First Henan Province Landscape Painting Exhibition and won the Excellent Award. On March 23, 2019, he participated in the “Tribute to the Two Sessions: Invitation Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Masters” at the Guoyi Original Art Gallery in Beijing, with his work being collected. Through the mastery of nature, one understands the path home; spring already fills the paper. —— On the Artistic Creation of Mr. Li Jinzhuang Whenever名家 who paint oxen are mentioned, the first name that comes to mind is Han Huang. Master Li Keran is regarded as a patriarch of ox painting; his concept of “treading one, refining ten” has had a profound and far-reaching influence on later generations, unprecedented in history. Whether successors will emerge remains uncertain, but one thing is certain: “The waves behind drive forward those ahead; each generation produces its own talents.” This is an inevitable law of human historical development. Only by building upon the accumulated experience of predecessors through continuous innovation and reform can our society reach its current level of perfection and prosperity. Similarly, by inheriting and promoting the creative ideas and artistic spirit of the masters who came before, it is natural for a new artistic style—synthesizing diverse influences—to emerge. Among the many outstanding artists, we must mention National First-Class Artist Mr. Li Jinzhuang. The ox is immensely powerful, humble toward children yet never boastful. It labors tirelessly its entire life, serving others without seeking glory. Gentle and docile, yet occasionally stubborn, it moves steadily forward, never missing a step. Its appearance is unadorned, yet its bearing is noble and dignified. I revere its nature and love its form, which is why I repeatedly paint it. Mr. Li Jinzhuang’s oxen are truly “full of ox energy.” He infuses his works with his unique temperament, emotions, and the spirit of his times, combined with his profound artistic skill, endowing them with extraordinary artistic power. His paintings shed the embellishments of color and environment, instead emphasizing weight and visual impact through bold contrasts of black and white. Furthermore, through rich and varied compositions, dynamic transformations, vigorous brushwork, and simplified yet spiritually complete forms, his works are more intense, vivid, concise, profound, unadorned yet grand in essence, and more vibrant and spiritually charged than any previous works of the same subject. Here, artistic practice once again proves that innovation and inheritance are the only path to authentic brush-and-ink character. In Chinese painting, brush and ink are both the goal and the medium, profoundly revealing the structural correspondence between philosophy and poetry, aesthetics and cognition in Chinese culture. I have never met Mr. Li Jinzhuang personally, but through his paintings alone, I have come to know him. As the saying goes, “One’s handwriting reflects one’s character”; likewise, his paintings reflect his character. He is upright and open-minded, sincere and straightforward, and thus his brushwork is decisive, his lines fluid, his forms accurate and vivid, devoid of pretense or artificiality—a fresh, righteous style that captivates the viewer. Therefore, he dares to paint freely and boldly, with sweeping, unrestrained strokes—his style is bold, spontaneous, vigorous, and genuine. His oxen are simple yet never empty, balanced between strength and softness, with fluid transitions and powerful pauses, seemingly casual yet containing the crucial “dotting of the eyes.” His ink usage is heavy, occasionally supplemented with light ink or dry brushing; even broad ink areas retain the quality of line, as if iron horses galloping through autumn winds, his brushstrokes flowing like clouds and water. His forms are highly abstracted. He integrates Western modern art techniques—form, light and shadow, black and white, composition—into his work, correcting the tendency of traditional Chinese freehand brushwork to become formulaic, achieving a state where simplicity of form yields richer meaning, fuller spirit, and deeper inner beauty. His ink oxen have created a previously unseen new language and visual system, blending block structures into calligraphic structures, harmonizing brushstroke symbols with representational intent. Through the modern sensibility of variation in brush thickness, interweaving of line and plane, and mastery of black and white, he has intensified and purified the imagery of ink oxen in freehand style, pushing the spirit and technique of freehand painting to its extreme. Beyond “thought” and “emotion,” Mr. Li Jinzhuang’s works also embody “brush and ink.” Yes, “brush and ink” is a concept of Chinese painting, yet it is not exclusive to it. Brush and ink are essentially “rhythm.” Rhythm reflects the most authentic inner self; if a work can move viewers through the artist’s thoughts and emotions, it must be composed of rhythm. Mr. Li Jinzhuang possesses the inherent qualities of a true artist. The height of Chinese painting does not lie in the self-indulgent appreciation of specialists, but in its appeal to both refined and popular tastes. To achieve this, one must touch the heart deeply—not superficially through literal representation, but through the humanistic spirit embedded in the imagery. These qualities are profoundly felt in Mr. Li Jinzhuang’s ox series. As a creature once closest to humanity, the ox has long served as a subject for countless painters. Each artist interprets the ox in their own unique way. Contemporary painter Li Jinzhuang’s work is distinctly rooted in Chinese culture. His ox-themed creations not only inherit the traditional understanding and perception of the ox, but also integrate modern thought. Chinese painting is also known as “freehand painting,” so the expression of “yi” (intention or spirit) is the core of the artwork. This “yi” arises from the artist’s understanding and cognition of the subject. Therefore, every subject depicted in a painting requires the artist’s deep observation and reflection, as well as the collection of public perceptions of that subject—only then can the painting become lifelike and expressive. If the development of society and the times inevitably replaces the old with the new, then under today’s globalized trend, what is erased by “development” is not merely the old appearance, but potentially also one’s own cultural individuality. Yet as a pure artist, Mr. Li Jinzhuang does not use his works to loudly protest this phenomenon. Instead, he quietly depicts what he observes from the standpoint of “observation.” Yet for viewers who cherish traditional sentiments, they can experience a profound spiritual resonance through the artist’s subtle expression of regional cultural character.
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Li Jinzhuang