Artist Profile
Gao Shaoping, contemporary paper-cutting artist, winner of the National May Day Labor Medal; National March 8th Red Banner Bearer winners; The Eleventh National Women's Congress; Winner of ten golden scissors in the Chinese scissors world.
Fujian Provincial Arts and Crafts Master, Senior Technician, Representative Inheritor of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Fujian Province, Chief Folk Artist of Fujian Provincial Art Museum (Hired), Deputy Director of Paper-cutting Art Committee of Chinese Culture Promotion Association, Vice Chairman of Fujian Paper-cutting Association, Standing Director of Fujian Folk Writers Association, Member of Fujian Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, Deputy to the 12th and 13th People's Congress of Fujian Province, Member of the 11th, 12th and 13th CPPCC Committee of Zhangzhou City, Vice Chairman of Zhangzhou Civic Writers Association, Vice President of Zhangzhou New Class People's Friendship Association, Standing Committee Member of Zhangzhou Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, First Cultural Master of Zhangzhou City, Zhangzhou Craftsman. More than 40 years of dedication to the excavation, rescue, inheritance and development of Zhangpu paper-cutting; Realize paper-cut diplomacy and promote Sino-foreign diplomacy.
Paper-cutting has been in the art for more than 40 years, and Gao Shaoping is committed to the excavation, rescue, inheritance and development of Zhangpu paper-cutting; He has been invited to Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia and other countries and regions for paper-cutting art and cultural exchanges, and promoted Sino-foreign communication with "paper-cutting diplomacy". She boldly innovated and successfully combined the ancient paper-cutting skills with the fashion of the times, making the strange flower of Zhangpu paper-cutting art more colorful and dazzling. Therefore, Gao Shaoping has won honorary titles such as "Folk Artist of Fujian Province", "Master of Arts and Crafts of Fujian Province", "Ten Golden Scissors of China", "Women of Haixi Era", "Search for Outstanding Female Representatives of Fujian Nationality who Grew Up with New China", and her original works have won gold and silver awards issued by governments at all levels hundreds of times. Flowers and applause came with the effort and hard work, Gao Shaoping's state of mind is still the same, as long as the scissors are in hand, she can devote herself to the creation of night and day at any time.
As a leader in the Zhangpu paper-cutting art world and a leader of the younger generation, Gao Shaoping and her paper-cutting art museum are also a business card in Fujian. Relevant leaders, scholars, experts in the cultural and artistic circles, celebrities, international friends, etc., as long as they come to Fujian, they will visit the art museum and praise the exquisite paper-cutting art.
Gao Shaoping grew up in an art family with a rich cultural atmosphere, her mother was the main actor and director of the county theater troupe, and her father Gao Qianhou was originally a full-time art cadre of the Zhangpu County Cultural Center, and the president of the Zhangpu County Art Research Association, which has three associations: the Paper-cutting Association, the Photography Association and the Art Association. The family gave Gao Shaoping a gentle and elegant temperament and extraordinary artistic talent, under the enlightenment of her father and the hands of folk paper-cutting masters Huang Su and Lin Tao, Gao Shaoping's works created during her youth have been exhibited abroad, and since then she has moved forward in paper-cutting art and has continuously made new achievements. The "Grandparents" series of works is created by Gao Shaoping combining her own and her grandparents' life experience, and its sincere feelings, precious memories and artistic compositions move the viewer, and each work records the beautiful fragments of childhood and the bits and pieces of the next generation.
Gao Shaoping is a "high-yielding household" in the folk paper-cutting peers, and new works have come out every three to five years, not only each work is exquisite, but also maintains a high degree of innovation. Her works are diverse in form and rich in content, involving historical legends, cultural customs, flowers, birds, fish and insects, and major events. Artistic style and technical master inherit the beauty, femininity, elegance and dignified legacy of Huang Su, such as "Lady Picture Series", "Four Beauties", "Flowers, Birds, Fish and Insects", "Four Gentlemen" and other slender and smooth lines, the composition spirit is full and impeccable. It is worth mentioning that Gao Shaoping is good at drawing on the forms and characteristics of other art disciplines in her creative practice: such as the "carved" sense of shape of printmaking, the aesthetic type of decorative painting, the exaggerated form of comics, the humanistic feelings in the lyrics, etc., absorbing them for her own use, and this integration and ingenious transfer greatly enriches and enhances the expressiveness and appeal of paper-cutting art. Inheriting the tradition of continuous innovation, integrating modern concepts and fashion elements, so that the ancient folk paper-cutting art glows with youth and vitality, which is the goal of Gao Shaoping's art that Gao Shaoping has always pursued. She boldly experimented, dared to explore the use of modern materials in the creation, such as foam board, sticker board, laser paper, outdoor advertising paper, the technique of cutting, engraving, pasting, painting as one, enhance the visual impact of paper-cutting art and the sense of modeling layering, so that the artistic effect of the work is more modern, close to life, such as "Really Miss You", "Bath", "Big Country Craftsman" series and other works are particularly vivid, and the audience feels more intimate after appreciation.
Being good at creating and expressing major political themes is another major advantage of Gao Shaoping. Major national events, great historical figures, and the brilliant achievements of reform and opening up are all her concerns. The conception and shape of such works, the layout and performance of scenes all amaze the viewer by the artist's skillful and exquisite control ability. For example, "Return", "Brilliant History", "Ode to the Great Man of the Century", "Centennial Olympic Dream Fulfilling China", "The Great Chapter of the Belt and Road" and many other works have fully demonstrated her magnificent artistic temperament. In 2019, Gao Shaoping created the work "Stand Up and Get Rich and Strong". With gratitude for living in the new era, with incomparable reverence for the great deeds of the party's leadership Chinese the people to stand up, get rich, and become strong.
When asked how to maintain a steady stream of creative inspiration, Gao Shaoping said: "I hope to cut out my dreams and the love in my heart, beautify my life, and let everyone share." "The paper cut is beautiful, the heart is highly tasteful, the hands are skillful, and the double is charming." Integrating art into life, bringing it to the daily life, drawing living water from the source of the times and society, the ancient folk art of paper-cutting has continuously glowed in the hands of generations of artists represented by Gao Shaoping.
The artist's philosophy and creative style
First, excavation and rescue development of Zhangpu paper-cutting
1. Gao Shaoping has inherited two folk paper-cutting masters, Huang Su and Lin Tao, since childhood, excavated and rescued the various genres of folk paper-cutting techniques for a long time, combined with other sister arts, and dared to innovate and develop traditional folk paper-cutting. In particular, he led Zhangpu paper-cutting to the market and the world, shouldering the heavy responsibility, and was determined to inherit the Chinese treasure "paper-cutting art", and use this unique folk art to tell and depict more and more wonderful Chinese stories and beautiful lives.
2. In order to better inherit the art of paper-cutting, Gao Shaoping has held hundreds of exhibitions and solo exhibitions in national government art museums such as Fujian Provincial Art Museum, Xiamen Art Museum, Jiangsu Art Museum, Heilongjiang Art Museum, Dalian Zhongshan Art Museum, Shaanxi Provincial Museum of Fine Arts, Inner Mongolia Art Museum, Hong Kong Library, etc., as well as various provinces and cities, all of which have received rave reviews and received wide attention.
3. Teach paper-cutting skills and guide people from all walks of life how to cut out smart and beautiful paper-cutting. Over the years, he has carried out voluntary teaching in tsinghua, Peking University, Renmin University, central socialist colleges and other colleges and universities across the country and all over the country, insisting that where people go scissors are brought, the footprints of cutting art teaching and display are all over schools, organs, communities, villages and troops everywhere... A total of 100 free training courses have been held, tens of thousands of old, middle-aged, young and young paper-cutting enthusiasts have been trained, and a batch of paper-cutting rookies have been trained.
4. Use paper-cutting as a medium to promote cross-strait family affinity. Gao Shaoping has gone to Taiwan for many times for exchanges, walked into homes for the elderly, Taiwan compatriots associations and other places to display and perform, contact compatriots and family affection, and once opened 6 paper-cutting crash courses in Penghu, each class is a 2-hour class, and the paper-cutting crash class has attracted more than 300 men, women and children to participate.
5. Packaging and mounting innovation: Drawing on the packaging of famous paintings of the French Louvre, Chinese paintings and high-grade commodities, innovating the three-dimensional embedding of paper-cut picture frames and rich layering methods, transplanting the scroll scrolls and mounting paper-cut works, making the ancient folk paper-cutting more three-dimensional, flexible and easy to carry, and further improving the artistic level of the products. The series of works "Blue and White Porcelain" uses paper-cutting art to express the unique charm of the mainland's blue and white porcelain treasures, as a three-dimensional work of carrying forward the traditional skills of the Chinese nation, it was selected as a national gift from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State Council to heads of state and viziers.
Second, promote and disseminate Chinese paper-cutting art to the world
Over the past 30 years, Gao Shaoping has visited more than 30 countries in Europe and Asia, and in November 2019, she accompanied Fujian Province to visit France, Germany, Spain and other countries with the European cultural exchange delegation. In recent years, he has also been dispatched by the Propaganda Department of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee and the Fujian Provincial Department of Culture to Germany, Indonesia, New Zealand, Austria, France, Italy, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan's Treasure Island region for cultural exchanges, which has played an important role as a non-hereditary heir of paper-cutting in order to enhance mutual understanding and exchanges and mutual learning between various ethnic groups and cultures at home and abroad, and has made outstanding contributions to the dissemination and promotion of Chinese paper-cutting art to the world.
Third, paper-cutting diplomacy spreads the good name
Strengthen cultural self-confidence, combine stage art with excellent traditional culture to promote the success of the border negotiations between the mainland and Bhutan. On October 24, 2015, representatives of the Bhutanese mission came to Beijing for the eighth time to carry out the 27th border negotiations, but there was no result, and when they returned to Zhangzhou, Gao Shaoping put the art of paper-cutting on the stage, and the touching paper-cutting performances and exquisite works infected the mission, turning differences into consensus, contributing to the success of the border negotiations between the mainland and Bhutan, which was praised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
An interesting story about the artist's style
On the afternoon of July 31, 2021, seeing the news that Lu Yunxiu won the gold medal in the women's windsurfing RS: X level competition of the Tokyo Olympic Games, Gao Shaoping's art museum instantly boiled over, which was the first gold medal in the history of the Zhangzhou Olympic Games, achieving a breakthrough of "zero" for Zhangzhou athletes in the Olympic gold medal, winning honors for the motherland and adding glory to Zhangzhou.
With irrepressible joy, Gao Shaoping and his apprentices immediately threw themselves into work, encouraging them to actively create and strive for higher, faster and stronger like The Olympic athletes. She rushed to produce this work overnight, and wanted to give it to Lu Yunxiu when she returned with honors, expressing the warm congratulations and respect of the paper-cutting artists in her hometown! Wish Zhangzhou sports career great development! Wish our great motherland a better place!
The Red Army Long March series of paper-cut works
Grandparents series of paper-cut works
A series of paper-cut works by big country craftsmen
Blue and white porcelain series of paper-cut works
A series of paper-cut works in the vernacular style