This exhibition displays more than 70 works, covering prints, oil paintings, drawings, creative drafts, sketches, etc., systematically sorting out the creative context of Li Huanmin’s art, while presenting his artistic life in multiple perspectives. It enables audience to intuitively approach the real world of Li Huanmin.

　　 

　　Li Huanmin is a banner in the history of Chinese printmaking art and an outstanding artist in the realism trend since the founding of People’s Republic of China. His art is inseparable from the Tibetan theme. In 1953, young Li Huanmin entered Tibet for the first time. Since then, his footprints have been left in Rigaze, Gyangzê County, Yadong, Damxung, Tanggula Mountain, Geermu, and Ruoergai Grassland. In more than half a century of his printmaking career, Li Huanmin entered Tibet more than 30 times, staying in Tibetan areas for as little as one or two months, as long as one and a half years. Since the early days of his stay in Tibet, Li Huanmin’s prints focused on reproducing his concern for the living conditions of the Tibetans; after the “Cultural Revolution”, his creation tended to express poetic expressions of romanticism; and in the 1990s, he began to search for the spiritual expression of Tibet, thus the eternality of time and space and the monumental significance are the typical characteristics of his creations during this period.

 

　　Li Huanmin’s works portray the transitions in Tibetan history and witness the changes in Tibetan society. When we entered Mr. Li Huanmin’s studio and sorted out his works left over more than sixty years, we discovered hundreds even thousands of manuscripts he had left. Some works can span decades from the initial conception to the final completion. His endeavors taught us what “deeply rooting” meant, as “going deep into life and rooting among the people” was not just a slogan, but it was also a heavy mission. “The key to creation is to study life deeply and discover new things, such as the traces of the epoch, aesthetics, and temperament,” Li Huanmin wrote down in his diary. He is deeply aware of the relations between art and life, while observing and experiencing life and thus finding beauty in the source. Li Huanmin’s “paths to Tibet” are like Zheng He’s voyages to the west and Xuanzang’s journey to the west to seek scriptures. A truth lies in them that achievements often require hard work. His artistic life embodies true cultural consciousness, therefore it has enlightening significance for the current art creation and talent cultivation.