Tian Yuan, a famous calligrapher and painter, passed away in Shenzhen on July 19 at the age of 90 after multiple treatments failed. During his more than sixty years of artistic career, he has been known as an "all-round artist" and "art eccentric" due to his extensive involvement in the art world.
Mr. Tahara was born in Shanghai on January 28, 1925. He started working in May 1949 and worked successively in the PLA Frontier Theater Troupe, Lishui County Cultural Center, Sunan Daily and Xinhua Daily. He was transferred to Jiangsu in 1980. He worked in the Calligraphers Association of the Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles and retired in 1992. He loved calligraphy and art all his life, and was famous for his achievements in comics, calligraphy, seal cutting, printmaking, paper-cutting, and comic strips. Over the past sixty years, he created a large number of works and won dozens of provincial and above awards. For example, the comic strip "Grandma Wolf" won the National Creation Award. Second prize, "The Legend of Lu Ban" won the second prize for national cover binding, and "Hao Guaiguai" won the first prize for children's books in six provinces and one city in East China. Mr. Tahara created with great care and made outstanding achievements. He published nearly a hundred books, among which the most influential works include "Chinese Toys", "Ancient Chinese Toys", "Tahara Hard Pen Calligraphy", "Hundred Examples of Banqiao Calligraphy Style Changes", etc. Mr. Tahara has created tens of thousands of comics, illustrations, drawings, and calligraphy works for major newspapers and magazines across the country. He is a prolific artist. Mr. Tahara is self-taught, enterprising, draws on the strengths of others, and writes endlessly. He has written a large number of essays, poems, essays, and created many novels and screenplays. Mr. Tahara is also a member of the China Printmakers Association, a member of the China Animation Association, a consultant to the China Paper-cutting Association, and a director of the China Arts and Crafts Society, and has enjoyed special government subsidies since 1991.
Tian Lao has been the art editor of Xinhua Daily for more than 30 years. During his time at Xinhua Daily, he and a group of people engaged in printmaking art, such as Zhang Xinyu and Chen Ruqin, made Xinhua Daily the main publication platform for Jiangsu printmaking and promoted The development and prosperity of Jiangsu printmaking. In that era before computer graphics, artistic taste was highly respected by readers. While working at the Jiangsu Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Mr. Tahara also opened the "Fan Niu Gossip" column in the Yangtze Evening News, which had a profound influence among readers. Because Tian Lao was born in the year of Ox and worked as a herdsman when he was young, his pen name was "Fan Niu". Later, it was collected and published as a book called "Fan Niu Gossip", and dozens of articles and illustrations were written and drawn in comic style, including "It Can't Be Delayed", "Plagiarism and Creation", "It's a Disservice", "Scenery in a Car", etc. . His paintings use unique materials, mostly using folk themes, such as cowherd dolls, folk toys, fruits and vegetables, etc., making him unique in the painting circles of Jiangsu and even the whole country.
In the opinion of Zou Xiaojuan, a senior editor of this newspaper who has worked with him for many years, Mr. Tahara is extremely smart and hard-working. He is self-taught in calligraphy, painting, seal cutting, and composition, and has made great achievements. He has set a record of writing 8 books in one year. "When I went to his house, the walls were covered with his paintings, even on the toilet. If you liked it, he would take off one and give it to you." Every year during the Chinese New Year, friends would receive greeting cards drawn by him himself. He is straightforward and humorous. For example, when the editor urged him to write a manuscript, he mocked himself by drawing an old hen laying eggs, which means "you can get it soon." Upon hearing the death of Mr. Tian, ??the Chinese Calligraphers Association expressed its condolences, " Mr. Tian is an outstanding contemporary scholar-type calligrapher and painter. He devoted his whole life to the inheritance of traditional Chinese culture and contemporary creation. Whether it is his rigorous academic spirit, Still a tireless sense of innovation, they are all examples for contemporary calligraphers and painters to learn from! Mr. Tian is immortal and his art is always there! ”