Pan Xiaoling - BAN JUN TU - Sold

The translation of the title of this painting (gouache style) is "Bull's Stampede". This painting is of a woman named pānxiǎolíng (Pan Xiao Ling).
She comes from an area known as "Huxian" in Shaanxi Province of China. She was born in 1958 and started painting in 1974.
Her paintings were the first Chinese folk art ever accepted for a series of postcards officially issued by the state-owned "China Post" (Chinese Postal Service).
Exhibitions of her work can be seen in America, Japan and Singapore.
Pan Xiao-Ling's work is a combination of folk art and modern art. Her inspiration comes from growing up in a small farming village in central China. This influence is clearly reflected in her paintings, which usually depict simple village life in rural China.
About the painting itself...
The artist used "shui fen" (paint powder and water - similar to gouache) on thick paper to create this painting.
About Chinese folk art and its history...
This style of folk art emerged in the 1950s, just after the revolution (when Chairman Mao took power). The art developed independently for many years in Huxian (Hu County) in Shaanxi province (the same province where you find the terracotta soldiers).
Things changed dramatically when the Cultural Revolution took place in China. Within a few years, art was only acceptable if it depicted some form of socialist propaganda, or showed some form of cooperation in the pursuit of Mao's communist ideals. This propaganda art rarely yielded any reward for the artist, who was instead forced into forced labor on communal farms to survive.
Chairman Mao
While the last cultural revolution came to a halt with the death of Chairman Mao in 1976, freedom slowly began to resound when Deng Xiao-Ping took power. Deng Xiao-Ping brought China out of the Middle Ages, away from 'Maoism' and communism. In the 1980s the freedom arose to once again put 3,000 years of artistic tradition into practice. Chinese folk art was finally allowed to be what it was intended to be: a way to freely express various scenes of daily life and snapshots of Chinese village culture.
According to Chinese government statistics, there are now more than 2,000 folk artists in southern China. Sixteen of these artists have been recognized by the Chinese Cultural Arts Bureau as the "Famous Masters" of Chinese folk art. These sixteen artists were recently honored by China Post with the issuance of a set of commemorative stamps. Of these sixteen masters, we represent three: Pan Xiao-Ling, Cao Quan-Tang and Zhang Qing-Yi.
Chinese folk artists have become quite famous and sought after for exhibitions around the world. Recently, these artists have formed a kind of union to ensure that they receive a good amount of money for all their paintings. Most of them have been able to improve their position in life by selling their works of art. One of these artists once said, “We have become good little capitalists, just as President Nixon dreamed.”
The gouache is in good condition with traces of adhesive tape and small tears at the edges. Frame is not included!