HENG Conglin painted his first masterpiece as a college freshman.

During the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), Cheng had worked in the local cultural bureau in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, painting portraits of Chairman Mao and other contemporary political pictures.

Then the "cultural revolution" ended, and the national college entrance examination re-started in 1977. Cheng and his fellow painters took the exam; seven out of eight passed and became college students. "The working unit became empty," recalled Cheng, who was 24 when he began his studies.

Nearly three decades later, Cheng and his former classmates have become leading art educators in China's most privileged art academies.

Cheng, now 50 years old, after 10 years living and working in Germany, is holding a solo exhibition in the Liu Haisu Art Museum later this month.

Cheng's first college semester started in the spring of 1978. He had a passion for expression, and didn't realize or care about his limitations. The painting "Snow on a day of 1968" depicted a fighting scene in the just-ended "cultural revolution".

People had vivid memories of the fight, driven by political crazes. Each young man, believing his group to be the most "revolutionary", threw fatal blows upon other youths, neighbours, former teachers and respected seniors.

Cheng's painting, a realistic group portrait of young people - one group being driven out of a building by the other - won national acclaim and became a representative work of the period, known as "scar literature".

He worked on the painting for 27 days in an empty classroom which his brother helped him find. Later, when the work was completed, his brother borrowed a cart to pull the painting to the academy for exhibition.

"He helped me a lot with logistics," Cheng said of his music-loving brother. When Cheng was working, he lived in the studio and his brother would bring him food. Even today, he is still used to sleeping in his working environment.

Chinese art education followed the Russian formula, emphasizing realism and drama. And Cheng has, for his whole life, viewed art as sublime and serious, favouring epic themes and subjects. "I found it difficult to play with art," he said. "Art is always sacred, like something high above for me to strive for."

Cheng stayed at the Sichuan Art Academy after graduation and acquired a teaching job. In the mid- 1980s, he witnessed large numbers of Chinese intellectuals pouring out of China and heading west. "I thought it was a bad thing for the nation," Cheng said. "I didn't know what the phenomenon suggested and couldn't tell what it would bring."

Cheng compared it with a large migration tide of Chinese labourers to the west about a century before, and created his next important work, "The Steps on the Harbour" and "The Chinese Labourers Boat". The two large paintings, each nearly two metres high, became landmarks of contemporary art. The paintings depict hundreds of people; on the boat are those departing to face a future unknown, while on the steps, their families and fellow villagers look up at the boat with sadness, expectation and thousands of unspoken words.

New feelings

Shortly after creating the famous works, Cheng himself had an opportunity to work in France. Before he went, he had developed an ambitious plan for a giant work, two large paintings depicting a wedding and a funeral. Later, after returning from France, he was invited to work on the project in Germany.

What he saw in Europe brought him great frustration. For the first time, he could stand in front of the original work of Western masters and learn about the frontier of contemporary art. But the experience made him realize his ideology may have become outdated in the contemporary art scene.

"I had very new feelings, but I was very upset that I couldn't put these new feelings into the plan for my project."

The large paintings took him three years, thrice the time he originally planned. While critics and friends highly praised the work, he had very complicated feelings about it.

So he stopped painting and went to Tibet. "I just wanted to go outside," he explained. Always a hard worker, he reasoned that he could only stop painting outside of his studio.

"People are ready to call themselves masters in today's commercial society," said Cheng, who found respect for his craft among the Tibetans.

The visit brought him a new peace of mind. Still finding it difficult to work with paint brushes, he picked up a pencil and created a series of sketches. They were very elaborately done, displaying high skill. "I drew on old papers, in order to add to the difficulty." The series was a big hit at the Chengdu Biennale in 2001.

Cheng now has resumed painting, keeps drawing and takes every opportunity he can to communicate with other artists.

Later this month he will lecture to cartoonists in Shanghai. "If painting can be combined with computer technique, there will be a great future. Animation is a giant industry, and it is all in the hands of the younger generation."

Exhibition of oil paintings and sketches by Cheng Conglin

October 23-28

Liu Haisu Art Museum

1660 Hongqiao Lu

Tel: 6270-1018