Chao Mei (b.1931) Heze, Shandong

Chao entered the army in 1948. He became leader of the fine arts team of his army cultural troupe and. during the 1950s, worked as an art cadre at the Harbin Military Academy. Transferred in 1958 to Beidahuang (the Great Northern Wasteland), in Heilongjiang Province, which was then being settled by demobilized soldiers as part of the Great Leap Forward, Chao labored in agriculture and as a surveyor of barren lands designated for production. His art caught the eye of the regional art supervisor, and artist Zhang Zuoliang (b. 1927, Shandong), and he was transferred to the recently created Beidahuang Pictorial Publishing House. There he worked as both editor and producer of woodblock prints. His official positions have included director of the Chinese Artists'Association, vice-president of the Chinese Printmakers'Association, President of the Heilongjiang Artists'Association, and curator for the Heilongjiang Fine Art Gallery. The romantic beauty of his work, which was frequently reproduced in national publications, is credited with attracting many new settlers to the region. His prints use dramatic perspective and color that achieves the effects of oil painting to celebrate the contrast between the natural beauty of Heilongjiang and its fields under cultivation.

18. September in the North 1964 41 x 62 cm Polychromatic; oil-based inks on yang paper Signed, title inscribed and numbered by the artist: 31/50 The harvest is red sorghum, the mainstay of the northern Chinese diet.     19. Natural Defence of the Northern Border 1978 46 x 56.7 cm Polychromatic; oil-based inks on yang paper Signed, title inscribed and numbered by the artist: 8/50 The largest forest in China, called Da xing anling, is in Heilongjiang, whose provincial border abuts on that of Siberia       20. Cloud and Shadow 1986 56.5 x 67 cm Polychromatic; oil-based inks on yang paper Signed, title inscribed and numbered by the artist: 15/50       21. Love in the Snow 1994 54.6 x 64.6 cm Polychromatic; oil-based inks on yang paper Signed, title inscribed and numbered by the artist: 3/50