Chicago-based Tu Zhiwei has spent years creating his massive works depicting key moments in Chinese history, such as construction of the Great Wall. (Photo: Shanghai Daily)

In an epic scene from hell, a vast fiery pit swallows piles of precious ancient bamboo books. Scholars roar and wail in despair, helpless as China's first emperor orders the burning of "dangerous ideas." Confucian scholars are buried alive, a sacrifice to unity.

A colossal canvas "Heads, Books, Pit" by Tu Zhiwei, depicts the high price of stability in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) after the tumult of the Warring States Period (476-221 BC).

That third century BC "cleansing" in all its horror is rendered on a canvas stretching eight meters in length and two meters in width. It's like a mural of an inferno.

Tu depicts the scene as though he had witnessed it himself. The oil painting is one of six huge works on exhibit at the Liu Haisu Art Museum, a major museum of contemporary art. The exhibition runs until January 16.

Tu, who lives in Chicago, is president of Oil Painters of America, a major association dedicated to the preservation of representational art. He is its first Asian president.

The canvas is part of his project to create 10 more colossal canvases on 10 epic topics from China's history, in 10 years. "Heads, Books, Pit" was created over 18 years.

"Sounds incredible?" asks Tu. "Even today when I look back, I can hardly believe it myself."

Born in 1951 in a poor village in Guangdong Province, Tu became passionately interested in art when he was very young. He learned painting on his own and was admitted to the oil painting department of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. In 1987 Tu entered Drake University in the US state of Iowa.

"As early as 1980 I started to touch the subject of Emperor Qin Shihuang's burning books and burying alive Confucian scholars," says Tu. "The tragic event even today is quite controversial, but it's not my responsibility to judge this. I just want to try my best to mirror this historical event through my own imagination."

During Emperor Qin's reign, he brutally eliminated intellectuals across the land because he feared revolution.

Books, sources of ideas, were burned to ashes and often their writers buried alive, including Confucian scholars.

Their words were stifled, but Tu's canvas gives them voice. He lets viewers "hear" the voices of struggle and anguish once again.

Reading extensively and visiting the Qin terracotta warriors in Xi'an, China's first capital in Shaanxi Province, Tu began his epic work with small sketches. Then he enlarged it on canvas.

"It was very difficult to control the composition," he says. "Painting a huge canvas is such a tough job, as you never end up reworking it."

Tu has a way of painting a colossal piece sanely - "otherwise you could sacrifice yourself on it."

"Don't paint too long in each session to keep some freshness, then put it aside, don't even look at it for a while," he says.

Due to its overwhelming size, Tu often had to run to his kitchen upstairs to get a complete view of his canvas downstairs in his large studio. Sometimes he had to shuttle between the kitchen and his studio for nearly every key brush stroke. "That's why I have a sturdy body," he jokes.

This is Tu's first Shanghai exhibition and it features other colossal works, some turbulent in theme, some peaceful.

In "Hands, Rafts, Yellow River," men struggle on a wooden raft caught in the middle of the surging Yellow River, China's mother river. Every tensing muscle of the desperate men is visible as they try to turn the gigantic rudder.

"Feet, Troops and Horses, the Earth" recreates Emperor Qin's heroic military forces, painted in fiery tones, overcoming obstacles and holding off barbarian raiders from the north.

Another canvas, "Dancers, Bells, Ancient Music," was inspired by the ancient bells and woodwind instruments of 2,000-year-old musical tradition. Unlike other canvases, this one radiates harmony and peace, joy and prosperity in everyday life.

"In 10 years I plan to finish 10 large paintings of 10 major events in Chinese history," says Tu. "So far I have only finished six."

Other canvases will depict the construction of palaces and imperial mausoleums, Buddhist life in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and the treasures of Dunhuang cave art.

"It might take me another 10 years," he says. "But I won't give up, though the job becomes tougher and tougher."
 
(Shanghai Daily January 10, 2008)