1947 Zhao Zongzao, 16 years old, was admitted to Suzhou Academy of Fine Arts with excellent results and maintained his studies for two years on scholarship. 1949 After liberation, he was admitted to the Fine Arts Department of Nanjing University. At that time, Fu Baoshi and other famous painters taught in the Fine Arts Department, and their learning conditions were second to none in China. Here, Zhao Zongzao absorbed all kinds of artistic nutrients heartily and studied all kinds of painting techniques, such as Chinese painting, oil painting, printmaking, craft, watercolor, sketch and calligraphy. This made him a versatile artist in college, deeply appreciated by professors and admired by classmates.
Because the effect of knife and wood carving is different from that of pen drawing on paper. The effect of a sharp knife carved on wood has a special expressive force and appeal, which is very strong and surging. I live in an era that reflects the light of the times and praises the beauty of New China, and printmaking is the most suitable.
From 65438 to 0952, Zhao Zongzao was assigned to Zhejiang Jinhua Normal University as an art teacher after graduation. In this strange land, there has been a new atmosphere of prosperity after the founding of the people's Republic of China. He found the material of life, but at that time, the teaching task was heavy and he didn't have enough time to create. Then, by the Wujiang River and under the bright moon, a young and promising printmaker began his own artistic pursuit.
During the period of 1953, Zhao Zongzao's print work "On the edge of Wujiang River" came out after many spare time accumulated late at night and minutes, and was selected into the first national print exhibition, which immediately aroused strong repercussions in the art world. Since then, Zhao Zongzao's creative passion has spread to Shenshi, and his colorful new life in the 1950s has become his inexhaustible source. Excellent paintings such as Party of Village Cadres, Spring, Field and Highland Barley all enthusiastically eulogize the new atmosphere of prosperity. "Village Cadres' Party" is simple and implicit, with a strange idea. Although I can't see the expressions of rural cadres, I can hear their hearty laughter. This work has great influence at home and abroad.
1955, Zhao Zongzao transferred to the printmaking department of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts to teach. He tutors students during the day and insists on writing in the evening and in his spare time, but he doesn't sleep every night 12. He even posted sketches on the bed wall so that he could try to find out the changes in the morning. For more than 40 years, Zhao Zongzao has been searching tirelessly in the art world, and this shabby copper spoon is the best witness.
In the long river of printmaking art, Zhao Zongzao trudged and explored diligently. While extensively dabbling in various woodcut expression techniques, he has been tirelessly exploring sublimation in the treasure house of national folk art, which makes his works have a strong flavor of life and distinctive national characteristics.
Zhao Zongzao's persistent pursuit of his beloved printmaking art has achieved fruitful results. The work Field was selected in the Leipzig World Printmaking Competition, the work Four Seasons Spring participated in the Paris Spring Salon and was collected by the Paris Library, and the works Huangshansong and Fairy Penglai participated in the 7th Norwegian International Printmaking Biennale and won prizes. Watermark woodcut "Huangshan" group painting is praised by western artists as opening a new world of watermarking technology in China. For more than 40 years, Zhao Zongzao's works have been exhibited in dozens of countries around the world, but his greatest wish is to hold a solo exhibition in his hometown where he was born and raised.