In the May of 2007, Mr. Du, being in hospital and knowing there were not many days for his life, hoped to see his own exhibition in the last time. Sichuan Art Museum and Sichuan Fine Arts Institute decided at once to co-hold the one titled the Retrospective Exhibition of Du Yongqiao’s Oil Painting and Watercolor. With a preparation for half a month, the exhibition was opened in Sichuan Art Museum on May 21. There showed over 70 pieces of his oil and watercolor works from 1950s to 2006. Mr. Du, in a wheelchair, attended the opening ceremony. Many of his students who are famous now in home and abroad came to Chengdu from different places.

　　After the opening ceremony, the reporter visited some of his students. In the afternoon, a symposium about the art of Mr. Du was held. Here are the abstracts of sound recording.

　　He Duoling(何多苓), an oil painter: In those years when I was a student in Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, I heard many people talking about Mr. Du. I had seen his paintings before I saw him. At that time I was surprised of his oil works in which I saw all my imagination upon oil painting. His art is mature from 1950s till now. If we see at the present time his works created in that time, we have to say they are very good even in the viewpoint of today, beyond our reach. They are masterpieces! Surely, he is the best among his contemporaries and his art is absolutely first-rate. Once when I was asked, I said we had actually only gained some skin or hair from him. It is not a polite remark, it is really so. His works are very profound. Now, I feel more his art is perfect.

　　It seems that his painting has nothing to do with his suffering experiences. His art is serene, detached and unconventional with a purified beauty. He has completely stepped over the age and his personal sufferings. I feel it is not easy but really great. Every one of us knows he has been treated unfairly, but I think it is the art itself that has saved him. From this point, I believe Mr. Du is very happy.

　　In the past years, he should be noticed but he was not. Many of his works were painted in the past, but we see them for the first time till today. It is possibly because he is of understatement. He has remained a recluse since the time when I was a student. Many people, I know, are looking for his works, but he is not likely willing to offer. He cares and knows nothing about the trade, so that his works are found few in the market. I can understand it is unbalanced between his works and their prices. The value of his works will be soon recognized in the market, which I feel certainly.

　　Having seen the exhibition, I am between joy and grief. It is held successfully, but I think it should be held earlier. It seems too late for him to hold such an exhibition.

　　Zhang Xiaogang(张晓刚), an oil painter: My personal friendship with Mr. Du is not much. I have not met him at least for ten years, but I admire him very much in the mind for he has been keeping his essence as an artist. Coming and seeing the exhibition today, I feel quite a lot. With so many people taking part in the opening ceremony, we can find that people in their minds look on him as a real artist.

　　In those years when he taught us in class, I was attracted with his color tone of grays. We had heard his colors were wonderful, but we in fact seldom saw his works. Many years have passed, and today we see for the first time his works from his earlier time to his latest, which leads me to sigh deeply. Now, as an artist I am very convinced by his works. During his later period, he has painted many excellent works with his unique characteristics. I think Mr. Du is a successful painter and I feel very proud as one his students.

　　Fortunately, in the March of this year I had a visit to Moscow where I watched many paintings, including the ones of the Peredvizhniki. Now turning to see his paintings, I can feel he has profoundly learnt and grasped the painting system of the Soviet Russia by which his generation is greatly influenced. I think he has reached far more ahead of his contemporaries.

　　The painters of his generation have suffered too much and their fate is very unfair. What I admire him is that he can step over the unfairness with his sincerity and persistence for art and that he can express out his unique understanding of art and of life. I feel this is why he is great.

　　Art is never abstract; it is forever a concentrated miniature of the time in the mind of an artist. The most important is whether he can or can not factually reflect his feeling and understanding of the art, and whether he can or can not step over the time he experiences. Mr. Du has done this completely.

　　I have a different art approach with Mr. Du, but I feel I share one thing with him. Only can art be moving when it combines the most essential in humanity. This is why we can be moved by his art that reflects the most precious in humanity.

　　He had been neglected for a long time because of that age, but today the exhibition proves again that a real artist and real works will never be ignored.

　　Zhou Chunyia(周春芽), an oil painter: I was taught by Mr. Du only for a month in the class of color, but I have benefited a lot and never forget his teaching.

　　Mr. Du has devoted all his life to art. He does not only persist in art, but also passes by teaching this virtue to his students. We come here today to support him greatly because we respect his art achievements and his attitude to life as an intellectual. In addition, he can communicate with young artists very well with an easy and peaceful mind.

　　The works in his late years are more experienced and trustworthy. The older he is, the more forcible and more spirited his works are, which is commendable.

　　He can insist on his unique style, not following the winds and waves. I think he does quite well.

　　Just now, some craft brothers said the comments upon his art do not match his accomplishments; I agree with them. If China has for these years respected artists and intellectuals, Mr. Du must have gained a greater achievement. He is a great master. In my impression, he is a respectable academic authority. I think we should study more his colors and his whole art. Very often, an artist is neglected in his life. Historically, many artists are discovered again and thus admitted only after their life.

　　Qin Ming(秦明), an oil painter sojourning in Canada: Living abroad for 20 years or so, I have visited many museums and galleries where are housed many masterpieces including those of the Soviet Russia, US and Europe. Now, I feel Mr. Du is still Mr. Du. His works are sharply characteristic in his unique style, especially in his use of colors and in the painting spirit. They are commendable, I think.

　　In fact, he is much more skillful than those of many Russian painters. He indeed paints very excellently. In my impression, some of his works created during the Cultural Revolution (1966—1976) are painted thickly and are flavored with the expressionism. I think they are great.

　　His recent works painted in freehand brush have attained to perfection. I think this has something to do with his accomplishment, his self-cultivation and his religious belief. Mystical and moving, they stand aloof from worldly affairs.

　　We the generation have benefited quite a lot from his earnest instruction. Even until today, we are very helped because of the skills and the art viewpoints he has taught us. Whenever I look back on his earnest instruction, I really feel grateful.

　　Gao Xiaohua(高小华), an oil painter and the honorary president of the Art School of Southwest University for Nationalities: Today are there so many people in the exhibition! It is the first time for me to see such a warm situation although I have seen countless exhibitions both at home and abroad! From the warm occasion, I can find two sides of his influence: one is his fine art and another is his good conduct. From the past to the present, I have encountered many important artists among whom Mr. Du, I still think, is the one I admire most.

　　The students of our class in Sichuan Fine Arts Institute generally had a strong basic. Some of us had taken part in some nationwide exhibitions. When we just came into the institute, some teachers dealt a head-on blow at the first encounter, but Mr. Du never did so. We all were sincerely convinced by his competency. He had a high reputation, but kindly and easily to be approached, he had never affected the pose of a high authority. Moreover, he was charming because he had his mind innocent like a child that was seldom found from other teachers. In our modern society, the personal relationship is unimaginably complicated, but there still is him, a person so simple and so innocent. You can not hear anyone in the art world to talk about him negatively, which shows his conduct is really a wonder.

　　No sooner had we entered into the institute than we heard that he was called the Surikov of Chongqing—Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (1848-1916) was the foremost Russian painter of large-scale historical subjects—so that we expected greatly he could have class for us. When we saw his name on the timetable, all of us were unusually excited. After his teaching was over, we went to the office of teaching affairs to ask to arrange his teaching us again. Surely I can say he is our loving-teacher as we have benefited a lot from him.

　　In those years, all the Chinese painters learnt from the ones of Soviet Russia, but few of them—among whom Mr. Du was one—learnt successfully. His gray colors were particularly attractive, wining a good fame. Today I see his recent works. Freer and bolder, they are the lives discharging naturally and voluntarily. I can say that the art in his lifetime is completely a wonder.

　　Today I am sorry to see he is in illness, but I am shocked by his vigor. I heard before that he was often in hospital and that many people thought art was less important for him. Factually, he struggles to live on till now! In addition, I am shocked by his recent works showed in the exhibition; they are powerful and vigorous. I think not only his conduct and his art are a wonder, but also his life is a wonder!

　　Luo Zhongli(罗中立), an oil painter and the president of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute: Mr. Du is our most beloved teacher. His accomplishment in art is great.

　　He has learnt quite a lot from the Soviet Russian school, but he has combined his own style with the school. His personal experience of colors is special, fine and minute. In front of his painting, you always feel his colors can move you like poetry. Whether you understand painting or not, you can be touched very much.

　　Not like the teachers who talk to their students in a commanding position, Mr. Du is willing to communicate equally with his students. In this equal relationship between teacher and student, you can certainly learn a lot from him.

　　Today I am moved to see his recent works from which I feel he is greatly confident when he paints. Through his lifetime he persists in art, and now he is on the top. I think this exhibition has an unusual meaning not only for Mr. Du himself, but also for our art cause.

　　Wang Yishi(王以时), a professor of the Fine Arts College of Sichuan Normal University and a painter sojourning in France: Mr. Du’s achievement in color is generally accepted. In his time called the time of China painters of the second generation, he is one of the few who are the most excellent. His paintings are in the highest level in our country. His colors and his skills are hard to be stepped over. But till now, he has not yet been really understood in China.

　　In the middle of 1990s, he started to create a kind of oil painting with Chinese characteristics, and he has been struggling for it. From his works in the middle and late 1990s, especially form those after 2001, we may say his effort is well resulted. With his unique expression, his individual images, his freehand brush and his sincerity, His works from 2003 to 2005 are much more heart-stirring. His achievement during this period is nothing less than that of his past. Compared with some greatest painters of his generation, he is more precious.

　　His works after 2001 are so strong in the freehand brush that there is almost no counterpart in the West. His approach is quite different from that of the Western expressionism, but his expressiveness is not inferior to the expressionism. Coming and going between Europe and China, I find there are few painters who have got to his level in art experience and in painting skills. I believe his works, if put in Europe, must be admitted and admired. From his works European can find their own cultural gene, and thus response sympathetically; at the same time, they can fine the things not existing in their culture, i.e., those of our Chinese culture, that will more evoke their aesthetic feeling.

　　His painting system established before is mature. Now, his changed style is also mature, breaking through the used one. This shows his art power is very strong, with a good training both in oil painting and in Chinese traditional painting. I think his works, if put on the stage of China modern oil painting, may be called masterpieces, that few painters can make. It is a pity that our painting world has not yet clearly known him.

　　Although I know little about the painting market in China, I feel the market is not very mature. The market, when it sets price for a painter’s works, usually thinks a lot out of the paintings themselves, such as his post, rank, title and social status. For an artist like Mr. Du without any titles, his price is often underestimated, which is sad. A few days ago, I said to Mr. Du that he is still great though the society treats him unfairly.

　　Xu Zhong’ou(徐仲偶), a printer and the vice-president of City Design School of China Central Academy of Fine Arts: I think Mr. Du is born to paint, a big genius, seldom to be seen in China. From Yuechi, his hometown, he walked for days and nights to Chengdu. Before entering art school, he knew nothing about Art Specialty or sketch or so, but he could grasp them once he touched, and could grasp surprisingly well. Since his early time until his late time, his art has been keeping at a level very high, being far ahead, which everyone knows.

　　He paints with his mind pure and without any distracting thought in his mind. He is a pure painter: with pure feeling, pure color and pure expression. For dozens of years, no matter how the social custom has changed and how the art trend has changed, never does his purity changed.

　　It is the supporting from two sides that leads this exhibition open in a short time. On the one hand, Sichuan Artists Association, having overcome problems, provided him with room. Nearly in the same time, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute decided urgently to co-hold the exhibition for him. This illustrates Mr. Du and his paintings are highly respected. On the other hand, many of his students come coincidentally to the exhibition at the same time. These of his students are well-known and scattered all over the world. How hard it is for them to gather in the same place at the same time! In fact they come, far beyond their politeness, but from their respect to their teacher as an artist. Indeed, Mr. Du is great, greatly influencing his students. He is a model for us to learn how a true artist should do.

　　Take any of his paintings to enjoy, from its sentiment and its atmosphere, you can hear his sigh to life. Even in his bright painting, what you feel is thickness. His gorgeous colors look weighty. His colors are so rich and distinguished that you can not write them out even in three books and that they are not pale beside any Western painting master if compared with each other. Very often, history is tragic, but it is in the tragic period that Mr. Du, the great painter is born.

　　I have gone to many countries and seen many original works of great masters. Looking back to see his works, I say impersonally that Mr. Du is also a great painting master. The history will certainly confirm his position as a great master among the oil painters of China. It is difficult in our country to appear such a painter. He is really unique in sentiment, in color and in expressive skills. I dare to say, his contemporary great painters would be filled with deep esteem when they see his paintings. One or two score years in future, the artists in that time will also be filled with deep respect if his works are exhibited in any place in the world. His art does not only belong to himself, but also is a legacy and a treasure of our nation.

　　Tang Yunming(唐允明), a traditional Chinese painter and a professor of the Fine Arts College of Sichuan University: Mr. Du’s oil painting is bold and confident. His colors are rich, fine and excellent. In his nude paintings, the beauty of females is expressed incisively and vividly. From young to old, he has kept his sense sharp to grasp and express beauty. His subtle sense is far beyond reach.

　　His works express the language of oil painting itself rather than any concept. He has not concept, no doctrine and no philosophy, but he has a pure heart, an intelligent mind and a pair of penetrating eyes. When we visited him around his sickbed, he began to get moved once art was talked about. I think he has really woven his life into his art. If I am asked to sum up him, I will say: he is an excellent artist both in skill and in sensibility. I admire him very much.

　　In his late years, especially in his recent years, he makes oil paintings fully with freehand brush strokes. For his long learning and studying, his cultivation of the traditional Chinese painting is very comprehensive. His flower-bird paintings are seldom to be seen, but I have once seen one of them, the Lotus, that is wonderful, full of power and grandeur, with the center brush fine. His excellent expressiveness in oil painting is caused by his comprehensive cultivation in flower-bird painting. In his recent oil works, his free brush touches and their rhythm without any letup are grasped concisely and accurately. He has done it successfully to use the elements of traditional Chinese painting into the practice of the western oil painting and thus to combine the two. Indeed, he is an outstanding genius. Many experts think it is a pity that his art is learnt and studied too less.

　　His famous students have their own different approaches, but they develop their arts after they have learnt from him, which is obvious. Generally, these famous artists coming from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute could not be thankful enough to Mr. Du, whose morality and whose art both enjoy a high prestige in their mind.

　　Lin Mu(林木), a historian of fine arts and the president of the Fine Arts College of Sichuan Normal University: Ten years ago, Mr. Du held an exhibition, which was also very influential. After that exhibition, I said to some people that he is not a common artist but a rare one, a genius rarely seen in China, and even till today. His colors are extremely sensitive; his shapes are extremely excellent. The sense of his shape formation between likeness and unlikeness is hard to be grasped by a common artist. It is also hard to be taught, or to be learnt. This is why I call him a genius. His colors are rich, fine and tender, that is very hard for a common painter to do. After that exhibition I wrote an article to publicize him, and the feedback from Beijing is: “Thank you for your recommending such a good painter. Unexpectedly, we have not yet known there is, in our country, an artist with such a high level that is hard to be found in Beijing.” Truly speaking, a genius can only be found by accident, and not through seeking. Perhaps, a genius such as Mr. Du can not be found even for hundred years. If he is studied in the viewpoint of fine arts history, he will be a big program worth being researched.

　　Once, he learnt the paintings of the Soviet Russia. After he paid a visit to Russia, he said to us, “Absolutely, I paint better than most of their great painters.” It is not easy for an artist to say so after visiting the country he admires very much.

　　Mr. Du, a very great painter, is one of the most important among the modern oil painters in China. What he has contributed is to have combined the Western oil painting with the Chinese art, thus forming an oil painting with Chinese characteristics. This sort of style is hard to be found in the West. Because of this point, both in the oil painting history of China and among the Chinese modern oil painters, he is undoubtedly a typical person. He himself also said in private that he believes the later generations will remember forever those of his works. As an historian of fine arts, I can say with my responsibility that his important position in the fine arts history of China will be out question.

　　Today I carefully read his dictation in sickbed. With his being leaving this world, his every word is extremely true and moving. He said that he knows nothing else except art, that he has got happy in art, that art is not his any means to get something, and that art itself is his life. He is really so. He knows nothing about interpersonal relations. In Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, his distributed house was the worst; his teaching title was got the latest. But he was the happiest one, living every day in his art. That day when we went to see him in hospital, all he talked with us was about art. After we left the hospital, Mr. Tang Yunming said to me, “Ah, what a person he is! He talked nothing else except art.” Mr. Du, in the hospital, was very clear he would have come to the end of his life. Difficultly and lowly, he said to me, “I tell you three points: first, my life comes to a full stop; second, my art comes to a full stop; third, in my lifetime, I paint only for my experience, not for the wind, not for the tide.” What he said made me sign with deep emotion.

　　It is really great to appear such a genius in our Sichuan and in our China. If our governments and our artists associations could do something for him, they will render a great service to our Sichuan, to our China, and also to the research of our fine arts history.

　　Qian Laizhong(钱来忠), a traditional Chinese painter and the chairman of Sichuan Artists Association: In 2002, Mr. Du paid a visit with us to Russia. On the way back home, he told me that the Russian artists were not so good as he had imagined and that he had overstepped them in many aspects. He also told me that he wanted very much to combine the traditional Chinese painting with the oil painting. I think it is a big jump for him to have those thoughts even in the year of 2002.

　　Although we extremely admired his art in a period of historical time, I still think we have not enough understood him till today. In future, time will certainly admit him. His latest works are at a higher level, more persistent and more aloof. His craftsmanship is greater. I think he is now more worthy of being called a great painter in China art world.

　　Perhaps, due to the time limitation, many causes make him not publicized in his every historical period. I still think his art is immeasurable to the revelation for us, to our entire art world and to the purity of China art.

　　We need to study his art, more completely, more specially, with more angles and with more sides. I, therefore, suggest not selling his paintings in a hurry, instead, we should create conditions to preserve them. Even if the art market today is not bad, his works will be certainly priced at another level. Mr. Du is a big tree growing to maturity for many years. Once his works go away, the whole fine arts world will be very sorry, and the whole art world will feel heavily lost.

素描　48.5x40cm　1977.8

素描　80x55cm　1973