Author: 王沂东
Size: 180*180cm
Signed and dated: Dated 2004
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LITERATURE：China Realism Oil Painting Selected， p10， Tianjin Yang Liuqing Fine Arts Press， Jan. 2005； Report of Oil Painters’Studio－Portrait， p29－30， Jan.2005； Chinese Contemporary Famous Oil Painters’ Work， p92， People Fine Arts Publishing House， Dec.2006； Reader， 5th Issue， 2007
signed in Chinese & Pinyin and dated 2004
EXHIBITED：Chinese Oil Painters： Wang Yidong， Cai Guoqiang， Zhang Linhai Art Exhibition， Duisburg Art Museum， Germany， May， 2005
Wang Yidong is one of the representatives of neo－classical oil paintings in contemporary China. He was graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in early 80s’ and is a professor in the same academy now. He has mastered the skills of classical oil painting and is good at adapting them to his own creation. Born in Shan Dong province， he has produced a lot of paintings depicting the lives of peasants in Yimeng Mountain， Shandong province. All of these paintings are wonderful and has been appreciated internationally.
Wang Yidong likes to take snow as backgrounds of his paintings. It is because snow is the symbol of purification so that his paintings would be “purified”. His paintings would lead their audiences into a beautiful dream. It would be possible for us to “see” the dream while impossible for us to “touch” it. All of the people in his paintings are normal persons. They are not beautiful， nor are they noble. But these humble people could make us touched deep inside because Wang Yidong’s paintings make it clear that we are sharing a lot of characteristics with them.
The Innocent Years is a masterpiece by Wang Yidong. There are two peasants in the painting， one is a middle－aged man， the other is his daughter. They are standing on the top of a snow－capped mountain. The father is looking forward. It seems that he is trying to hurry his daughter up so that they could back home a head of night. There is a colorful quilt in his left hand while he takes a watch － symbol of fortune in poor villages － in his right hand. The daughter is a teenager. Wearing a tight quilted jacket and loose cotton－padded trousers， she is not pretty at all. It seems that her father is trying in vain to call her attention because she is indulging in her own dream. But what is she dreaming about? Where is her future? Would she spend her life in the poor village as her parents and her grandparents? Her innocence is so touching that her expression has called to our mind our own innocent years. We have dreamed for our future in our innocent years too. Have our dreams been realized? How many dreams have been lost in the passing years? We are forced by the painting to stand up to our own life and our own memory. It is wonderful and painful.
