Lu Shengzhong is a Chinese

Chinese people

The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

 artist who specializes in the ancient Chinese art of paper cutting.

Early life

Lu was born in the Dayuji village in Shangdong, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, in 1952. Shangdong has long been known for its paper cutting art culture. Lu’s father was a farmer where his mother was a house-wife, who was well known around the village for her paper cutting talents. As a child, Lu fell in love with the way his mother would create art with cut scraps of paper.

"My mother had a very skilled pair of hands. She made paper cuts, embroidered, drew floral decorations, decorated wedding rooms, cooked matou when visiting relatives and did many other things. These are all beautiful details of everyday life. I was fascinated by it and participated."

As Lu got older, his fascination for paper cutting began to fade. As a young adult he joined the army for a short while. After the army, he worked for a short period of time as a film projectionist. In the mid 1970’s he attended art school at Shangdong Normal University, and graduated in 1978 with a degree in Fine Arts. After Graduattion he later attended Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA) in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 for his masters program in the early 1980s. During this time period, China’s art scene began a change from socialist realist paintings. His classmates began to discover rock & roll music, bleu jeans, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, as well as the art genre of Dada. Lu Shengzhong graduated from Central Academy of Fine Art in 1987, with a masters in folk art

Folk art

Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic....

.

"With the ending of the Cultural Revolution, China opened its long-closed doors to the outside world. 'The moon in the West is brighter than the one in China.' The public tried to imitate the West, the model for those Chinese who were eager to succeed. It was a very interesting time but it did not, in my opinion, leave behind much of lasting importance. Artists, too, tried to copy the West in so many ways. … Thus in the mid-1980s, I walked away from the cultural confusion of the time and turned back to the villages, to traditional Chinese folk art."

After earning his masters, Lu began to travel through China’s hinterland. One of his memorable trips was the northern Shaanxi province, a rough area that’s known for its rough, arid terrain, as well as the poverty within the area. Lu embraced the culture, by watching the local peasant women create memorable shapes and objects out of paper. For example they would cut out, frogs, mice pomegranates, lotus flowers, rabbits, etc.

Early career

In 1988, Lu had his very first exhibition at China’s National Art Gallery. He turned the art gallery into a "temple filled with totem-like images", by using cutouts of footprints that were suspended in mid air, as well as silhouette patterns accompanied by illegible calligraphy. Lu’s display at China’s National Art Gallery caught the attention of local art critics, but Lu Shengzhong felt no sense of glory as he described his art as “a lonely struggle along a desolate path.” Lu later wrote a more detailed description stating:

“Exerting the utmost strength I squeezed out of a marketplace filled with contentious crowd, and found a silent, forgotten little path to walk on. Intrigued by unfamiliarity and longing, I followed it to retrieve original characteristics of humankind that have been filtered out by civilization, to summon images of lost souls in the polluted air, to understand the spiritual pursuit of mankind in its infancy, and to search for the deep connection linking my native land with the rest of the world. All my efforts are to nourish the ancient culture. Thus suddenly I gain confidence, because in my mind I have paved a path for today’s art.” (Lu Shengzhong: Book of Humanity: Empty Book 2005)

Within Lu Shengzhong’s early career as an emerging artist, he has entered many solo and group exhibitions between the late 1980s and mid 90’s including:

• 1989: Life-Ephemeral and Eternal, Taipei, Taiwan
• 1989: China Avant-Garde, NAGC, Beijing
• 1990: Calling the Soul Hall, Central Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, Beijing
• 1990–1992: Calling the Soul Around, Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi, Hunan, Guanxi, and Liaoning provinces
• 1991: Calling the Soul, Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing
• 1992: Red Train, Emden, Berin, Wiesbaden, and Hamburg, Germany
• 1992: Begenung Mit Den Anderen, Halle K18, Gesanthochschole, Kassel, Germany
• 1992-1993: Post-Mao Product, New Art from China, traveling exhibition in Australia
• 1994: Asian Art Show, Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan
• 1994: Soul Stele, Adelaide, Australia
• 1994: Soul Market, Beck Forum, Munich, Germany
• 1994: Emergency Center, St. Petersburg, Russia
• 1995: ORT -+, Wuppertal, Germany
• 1995: International Biennual Art Show, Gwangju, Korea
• 1995: 4th Asian Art Show (Realism as an Attitude), Setagaya Art Museum, Japan
• 1996: ARCOS DA LAPA, Rio de Janiero, Brazil
• 1996: Origin and Myths of Fire, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
• 1996: Calling the Soul, Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan
• 1998: Notes Across Asia, Berlin, Germany
• 1998: Recalling Tradition, German Embassy, Beijing
• 2000: First Encounter, Chambers Fine Art
  Chambers Fine Art
  Chambers Fine Art is an art gallery based in New York City and Beijing that specializes in Chinese contemporary art. Opened in New York in 2000 by Christophe Mao, it was one of the first galleries in the United States to promote Chinese contemporary artists...
  
  , New York, USA
• 2000: Record of Emotion, the Watchtower-Contemporary Art, Beijing
• 2000: Gate of the Century (1979–1999) Chinese Art Invitational Exhibition, The Contemporary Art Museum, Chengdu
• 2001: Lu Shengzhong: World!, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
• 2001: Beijing-Dachauer, Dachauer Schloss, Germany
• 2001: Clues to the Future, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China
• 2002 : A la nuit tombée: Lu Shengzhong, Grenoble, France
• 2002 : De Waan Venray Asylum, Holland
• 2003 : Auspice From Above, Eslite Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
• 2003: Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou Museum of Fine Art, Guangzhou, China Blue Sky Exposure, Yizhuang, Beijing, China
• 2003: Synthi-Scapes: Chinese Pavilion of the 50th Venice Biennale, (cancelled due to SARS), later shown in Guangzhou Museum of Fine Art, Guangzhou, China
• 2003: Openness, China Art Museum, Beijing, China
• 2003: Left Hand, Right Hand, 798 Art Space, Beijing, China
• 2004: The Book of Humanity, Chambers Fine Art
  Chambers Fine Art
  Chambers Fine Art is an art gallery based in New York City and Beijing that specializes in Chinese contemporary art. Opened in New York in 2000 by Christophe Mao, it was one of the first galleries in the United States to promote Chinese contemporary artists...
  
  , New York, USA
• 2004: Cinesi artisti fra tradizione e presente, Marsilio Art Museum, Italy
• 2004: Universal Figure—A. R. Penck and Lu Shengzhong, White Space Gallery,Beijing, China
• 2005: The New Emerging From the Old, University Art Museum, University at Albany, New York, USA
• 2007: Square Earth, Round Heaven, Chambers Fine Art
  Chambers Fine Art
  Chambers Fine Art is an art gallery based in New York City and Beijing that specializes in Chinese contemporary art. Opened in New York in 2000 by Christophe Mao, it was one of the first galleries in the United States to promote Chinese contemporary artists...
  
  , New York, USA

Three Elements

Lu bases the theme of his paper cutting around the dynamic life cycle of paper cutting. The theme is an old technique that sustains vitality through infinite recreation and variation. With the art of recreation and variation as a basic technique, the art itself becomes a way becomes the art of constant renewal, not only in the art but life as well. For instance the art was used in holidays, festivals, weddings, and funerals. These events mark certain passages within a person’s life. There are three basic elements in Lu Shengzhong’s artwork that he finds essential in the art of paper cutting.

The first element is the dynamic relationship between positive and negative forms, in which is constantly created in the art of paper cutting. Lu feels what’s so significant to this is the fact one cannot us positive or negative forms alone, but for them to be used together, as in a single piece of paper that creates a conceptual whole.

The second element is referred to as the materiality of paper cutting. First and foremost, the art of paper cutting always generates tension between two- dimensionality and three dimensionality, for the fact that a piece of paper is assumed to be two-dimensional for being such a flat surface. Regardless of the way paper is cut, it still has a volume, as well as a front and back. When Lu creates a piece, and attaches the paper cuts to aboard, he compares his work to a painting and a sculpture, he then begins to contest the relationship between the two art forms. Lu also feels that a paper cut also represents fragility, for the fact that paper is vulnerable to natural and human disasters. Fragility has been the theme and subject matter used in Lu Shengzhong’s artworks.

The third element in Lu Shengzhong’s work is the temporal, meditative nature of paper cutting. This refers back to when he had the conversation with a local peasant woman while visiting the Shaanxi province. Lu asked of her the thought process of the paper cuts she was creating, and she replied “nothing, there is nothing in my mind.” To interpret the answer, Lu begins to approach his paper cutting with creative processes, emotion, and rational thinking, at the same time makes doesn’t make him creative. What makes Lu Shengzhong, and the peasant woman so significant, is the fact that when they create a piece, they are expressing as well as releasing themselves with abstract visual forms.

Later career

Lu published a book in 2005 entitled The Book of Humanities, where he discusses as well as displays his past and present works. The book also employs Lu’s three elements behind paper cutting along with his philosophy towards his artwork in several volumes. Some of the books collage pages were scraps from actual pieces that Lu Shengzhong created. The collages in the book are of little red figures such as frog, paper people, and other various shapes.

Lu Shengzhong currently works as a professor at the very school where he earned his master’s degree, Central Academy of Fine Art, in the department of Research Institute for Folk Art Studies in Beijing. Lu teaches up to eight classes per semester, and is very enthusiastic and well involved with his students, in hopes that they will be the future for art