Ting Shao Kuang
BORN: 1939
HOMETOWN: CHENGGU COUNTY, CHINA
LIVES AND WORKS: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
Ting Shao Kuang (丁紹光), a Chinese figurative painter and printmaker, was born on October 7, 1939, in Chenggu County, China.
Ting was abandoned by his parents at the young age of 9 and turned to painting to express his sorrows and loneliness. He started studying at the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts in Beijing in 1957, where he learned about artists such as Matisse, Picasso and Modigliani, who became great inspirations to him. Upon graduation, he moved to Kunming and taught at the Yunnan Art Institute there. He would continue to paint during his free time, burning them upon completion in attempts to avoid being caught by the authorities for his abstract style. Eventually, he got found out and was forced to leave in order to evade capture. He escaped to the monasteries in northern China and it was there that he studied the cave paintings that had been preserved for centuries on the old Silk Route. In 1968, he returned to Kunming, keeping a low profile, until the death of Mao Zedong. He and his colleagues then formed the Yunnan Shen She Art Association and he was commissioned to paint a mural in the Great Hall of the People after that.
Wanting to gain complete artistic freedom, Ting migrated to Los Angeles, California in 1979, and has earned great success since; even being commissioned by the American and Chinese governments and organisations within the United Nations.
He is best known for his serigraph works, which often feature the female form expressed in a mix of traditional Chinese and Western influences - very much a result of his heritage and life experiences.