Guo Zhen's work is shown at the preview of Sotheby's (Beijing) Auction in June [Photo/chinaculture.org]

Q: You went abroad in 1986.

A： Yes, at that time, people were crazy about going abroad, including Chen Danqing and other excellent artists. Most of the school talents went abroad to pursue a new life, and it seemed like the western countries were free kingdoms. I also followed them blindly. But to my surprise, I realized that you have to be wealthy there, or you cannot even survive. That’s what I never thought in China, because I can make a living from my monthly salary, even though not too much, it was enough to guarantee life demands and I didn’t need to worry about the next month’s life. However, this problem was very sharp when I was in America. I usually thought about many problems like what I will eat for the next meal or where I can live today. In a word, I felt confused, and I had to make a living by doing hourly work. I was so lucky during this time. After half a year of hourly work, I found a job in a gallery, in which I could paint and make money.

Q: You pay much attention to women and children in your work, so was this theme accepted by the westerners? 

A: In my opinion, the western market was very open, and can accept anything, for example, the westerners would not say the work was bad when they couldn’t understand, and they would ask themselves the reason or the main idea reflected in the paintings. So in this point, there seemed noproblems about this point.

Q: So the shackles and fetters burdened on the traditional Chinese women you expressed in your works was understood by them.

A: Although I used too much Chinese ink to depict the distortion of the figures in my works, they can better fell what you want to express. They would try their best to know you and you works. I put some ideas form my deep heart into some of my works, and they reflected my deep feelings. As most of my works reflected my own feelings they were closely connected to my life. Therefore, if you want to understand the connotation in my paintings, you’d better understand me first.

Q: This reminds me of some remarks about you that one can feel a strong spiritual impact force in your works, so what do you think of this idea?

A: I think every art has its own soul, without which it can not even be called art. The soul of an art work decides its value, and it’s true of landscape paintings, figure paintings or bird-and-flower paintings. Whatever you paint, you have to give it soul, and that is what you want to reflect. So it’s not impossible to call me an artist of soul, because I value this point very much. Form serves the content, and which form to choose doesn’t really matter.

Q: Form is just a carrier.

A: Some people focus on the form. I think women artists might value much on the content, which is different from men artists. This is my own idea, and it was reflected in my works, for example, Waiting describes that my father was ill, and my mother sat beside him. I didn’t explain what to wait for, but in this painting, there was a large oxygen bomb. I didn’t mean to enlarge it deliberately, but during the process of creation, I draw it large naturally. That’s to say, when I draw this picture, I burdened it with deep hope, because oxygen means life and without oxygen, there will be no life on earth. Behind my mother, I added some indistinct light. It’s said that people can see light before they die, and I also experienced this. One time when I was sick, I fainted, and there was nothing but light which seemed quite amazing. There were aksi flowers, birds and greens, and it looked like a road leading to death. In fact, one may feel relaxed before he was dead. Then, suddenly, this picture disappeared and I was awake. So I think one may see some visions before they die. That’s why I added some colorful but gentle light on this picture. One of my American friends saw this picture, and called me two days later, saying that he felt very terrible because the picture always came into his mind whenever he closed his eyes. The picture struck a responsive chord in his heart, because he once suffered a friend’s or family’s illness.