The artist's life

Mo Jingpo, a retired associate professor from the Jiangsu Traditional Chinese Painting Institute, was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, in 1935. As a child, he learned traditional Chinese painting skills from his mother. He later majored in Western painting and sculpture at art college. After his graduation, Mo studied Chinese painting further under the guidance of contemporary Chinese painter and calligraphy master Lyu Fengzi. Mo established his reputation in the 1950s and '60s, when many of his creations were displayed in national shows. While he was at the Jiangsu painting institute, his signature work Long March created in 1958 was the first by a noted artist in the school to use traditional Chinese painting techniques to depict then popular images of workers, farmers and soldiers. However, Mo had to quit painting due to political reasons and made a foray into teaching folk music from 1966 before he could return to visual art in the late 1980s. He has held solo exhibitions in such locales as Japan, and China's Taiwan and Shanghai, and many of his works are included in the collections of a variety of institutes, including the State Council and the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

China Daily

(China Daily 04/30/2015 page10)