Contemporary Chinese artist Cao Jun, whose work enjoys a high reputation all over the word, donated his oil painting Initial on Feb 8 to his hometown – Taizhou city in East China's Jiangsu province.
What's more, he was appointed as an international communications ambassador for Taizhou at the same time.
It's smiles all round at the donation ceremony held in Taizhou. [Photo/WeChat ID: tzfabu]
Cao Jun, born in 1966, was raised in the Jiangyan district of Taizhou, where the lakes and rivers shaped his childhood environment. He is currently living in the United States. He won the Gold Medal at the Salon du Carrousel du Louvre in Paris in 2013 and exhibited his work at the McMullen Museum of Art in Boston, in the United States, in a solo exhibition in 2018.
His paintings were also listed in a leading American university's textbook in 2015.
His works are a synthesis of Chinese classical calligraphy and western modernism. He says that in them, he tries to express China in an international and artistic way and to show the beauty of Chinese culture to the world.
Cao Jun's work Initial, or Zuichu in Chinese. [Photo/WeChat ID: tzfabu]
"I think this painting is the most suitable one to be presented to my hometown," Cao said, adding that Taizhou was where he launched his career.
He has been recognized across the world of art – and has even been written about in European and American textbooks – and he said he wanted to share that honor with his hometown.