An octogenarian continues to be inspired by Buddhist sculptures

Chinese artist Wang Yiyang has more than 10 ancient Buddhist sculptures in his Beijing home, from which he draws inspiration for his ink paintings.

A few of the figurines date back to more than 1,000 years ago.

The 84-year-old artist has been depicting leading lights of Buddhism through simple ink strokes since the 1980s by including aspects of Chinese calligraphy into his artworks to create a style of “cursive painting”.

“It takes me days to meditate on how to draw these figures in simple lines. But the painting only takes me a few minutes to complete, usually in coherent ink strokes,” Wang tells China Daily.

Wang worked as an apprentice in an antiques shop at a young age, which led to his fascination with Buddhist sculptures.

During the “cultural revolution” (1966-76), many ancient Buddha statues in temples and pagodas were destroyed, and people tried to protect the remaining ones by hiding them.

After the “cultural revolution” ended, the statues were dug out from underneath houses, but there were few places where they could be stored for preservation.

For many years during his young days as a painter, Wang collected Buddhist sculptures in payment for his paintings, he says. He kept them at home so that one day he could donate them to a museum.

Through the years, no matter how detail-oriented a figurine was, Wang was always able to portray it through his ink art.

Other than the mainland and Hong Kong, his shows have toured Japan, the United States, Canada and Australia.

Liu Kaiqu, a former director of the National Art Museum of China, says one can see how well the techniques of Chinese calligraphy and ink paintings have mixed in Wang’s works.

Wang’s creativity goes beyond painting. He sings, plays several musical instruments and writes poetry. During the two decades that he worked in Guantao in North China’s Hebei province, he helped set up a theater troupe there.

“I love singing and dancing. It also helps me shape an artistic melody in my paintings,” says Wang.

Born in Xiamen in eastern China’s Fujian province, Wang started to paint at age 5. He loved painting so much that he made paintings on any surface he could lay his hands on — the walls of his parents’ home or the cobblestones of the streets.

He studied art at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts from masters Liu Haisu, Huang Binhong and Pan Tianshou. After graduation, he worked for newspapers as an illustrator and drew comics and posters in his spare time.

Wang’s paintings reflect the artist’s inner mind, says Guan Shandi, a researcher at Chinese National Academy of Arts in Beijing.

He recently donated more than 60 of his works to a Guantao museum.

DENG ZHANGYU / CHINA DAILY Chinese artist Wang Yiyang is good at combining the art of calligraphy with that of ink paintings.