Didier Hirsch, an American businessman, is now a leading collector of Chinese contemporary art. In recent years, he has turned a hobby into a passion, studying Chinese art and meeting with leading artists. Below is an interview Mr. Hirsch did in July 2008 for ArtZineChina.com with the Chinese artist Liang Weizhou.

1. Life and the beginning of art:

Didier: Can you talk about your life, your mindset, and how they impacted your art?

Liang: I was born in 1962 in Shanghai. After I dropped out of high school during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), I worked as a farmer for one year, a welder for five years and an art college teacher for 19 years. I have a ten-year-old child from my first marriage. I remarried with Mao Xi in 2006. She teaches design in a university. My art is very closely related to my life. My work always comes out in accordance with my life. I am basically a “natural actor.”

Didier: How did you become an artist?

Liang: I liked painting when I was a child. My father, who was my first tutor, was an amateur artists who more or less exerted influence on me. Another influence was a teacher I met named Mr. Wang, who graduated from painting department of China Academy of Fine Art in 1950s and trained me professionally. It was not easy for me to meet Mr. Wang at that time. I began learning to sketch with Mr. Wang when I was fourteen-year-old. I studied Chinese painting at the age of 20. I didn`t learn oil painting until very late, maybe in1987. Fortunately, I entered East China Normal University when I was 23 years old. Getting into universities was as hard during the 1970s to 1980s in China. I took the entrance examination many times. I was so happy when I finally enrolled at the school. I would still be an art amateur if I did not go to university. Now I feel everyone is a natural artist, but few realized it, and I am one of the few.

Didier: What impact, if any, have the political and social contexts had on your art? Have you ever wanted to take a political stand?

Liang: : It seems that the political context has no impact on my art. I am not sensitive to politics. But the impact of social contexts is evident. In my work, “Facing the Reflection” series, the main character is not compatible with the social reality, which implies that independent intellectuals are solitary and confused in China. Thus they will achieve nothing. The life experience of an artist is always the main source for its work.

Didier: I never saw any sarcasm or cynicism in your paintings, nor concrete issues about your environment and background. Did I miss it? Or, were individual factors playing a solo role, versus the social and political environments? Do your works tell a story? Are you a story-teller?

Liang: My art is completely personal. I only care about myself and surroundings. The figures in my work are always isolated from society. My works are delusions, reflections as well as stories.

Didier: Would you say you are a fierce individualist, an anti-conformist and if so, in which way?

Liang: You are absolutely right. However, I am not against politics but just insensitive to them. My work is a mirror reflecting every aspect of my life. My style changes when my life changes.

Didier: Your art seems very personal. Do your works echo events in your life?

Liang: Yes, they are the playback of my life and family, especially the works created after 2007, which come directly from daily life while symbols gradually weaken.

Didier: What about friendship? I believe many of your friends are represented in your paintings.

Liang: Really close friends are always difficult to find. I keep good relationship with my friends. Nowadays, Chinese artists are more liberal than the past. They are open when faced with different ideas and values. As the Chinese proverb says: “Gentleman get along with differences.”

Didier: I believe you are a professor in an art university. Did you ever consider becoming an independent artist; if not, why not? If yes, why did you not do it?

Liang: I always dreamed of being a professional artist. In the past, “ professional artist” in China means a jobless person without steady income or identity. There are no art foundations in China, even today. So it means the artists cannot make a living when they cannot sell their works. Thus they will please the market and finally do art just for a living.

2. Works:

Didier: Do you agree that there are three main periods (from 1980 to 1991, 1991 to 2001, 2001 to now) in your art style? Can you comment on your art styles for each period? How did the various series come to be? There is clear continuity, but also disruptive changes. What triggered the changes?

Liang: I basically agree. The period before 1991 is my initial stage. The 1980s is important for China opening to the outside and learning from the West. When I was at university in 1985 and 1986, the New Wave art movement in China began, and I had plenty of chances to learn art from the West, including reading big art books and attending lectures given by Western scholars. Starting from 1991, when I began to work on “Facing the reflection” series until 2001, I focused on my own life and express my feelings strongly in my work (starting from 1995). After 1997, I become more individual and isolated. As matter of fact, works done during this period are more pure and profound. From 2001 to 2008, I have begun to care about daily life and emphasis on painting itself. From 2006, I came to draw real things and people, pieces that belong to expressionism. As to how the three periods are in clear continuity, it is because my personality and the influence of ancient Chinese landscapes have had on me. The influence is always in my works of different periods.

Didier: The early paintings, packed with expressionism, emotional angst, and unmistakably Chinese, blended Eastern and Western influences. You distorted reality for an emotional effect. You used a mirror, both symbolically and as a tool. Can you talk about your state of mind as you painted those works, and what you wanted to convey?

Liang: My works during the early and middle 1990s are very personal visually. They are connected with the social conditions as well as myself. First, China began to change dramatically since 1990s. Old ways of living and values collapsed. It is the time of the commercial age and there are distant relationships between people, which make everyone depressed. Mirror, as a good tool and symbol of oneself, can reflect what are the ideas and insecurities of the figures are in my work.

I have talked about my recent new paintings. Here I will talk about my photography. It is my hobby, and I use pictures as materials for my paintings. But since 1999, photography became my new art activity and is different from my painting. What is similar is that all them can be seen in a usual way.

3.Market and future:

Didier: What is your opinion of Chinese contemporary art and the Chinese art market?

Liang: I think they do not make sense! I believe some artists are exploiting the market, producing what the market will buy: flashy colors, humor, caricature, social and political consciousness, etc.

Didier: What do you think of the contemporary Chinese art in the 90s compared to now? Were you or are you an avant-garde artist?

Liang: It is business not art when you work for the market! At least, it is a matter of attitude. Every man has his ambition; it is all right to do art in order to make a living. Of course, during the 1990s, we all work art for art`s sake. There is no market at all at that time. As to the question of whether I am an avant-garde artist, I think it is not important. Independent is the key factor that will produce personality to your own work.

Didier: What about the art market? Do you want to comment on the Western and Chinese art collectors? Different tastes?

Liang: I do not know much about art market. I believe that a Western art collectors who is dependent on himself as you is only a few. Many of the Western art buyers are not collecting Chinese art but only buying it for its exoticism and symbolism. As to whether there are Chinese mainland art collectors, I do not know many.

Didier: In some way, you have shunned market recognition, when many artists in your generation have become icons at the contemporary Chinese art market. Would you have like to have done anything differently?

Liang: It is not right to do art for the market. Even the successful star artists did not work for market in the beginning of their art life, otherwise their art would be vulgarity. Their success provided me with confidence but I will not be influenced. Everyman has his own destiny, anyone who is industrious will get what he want.

Didier:How are commercial success and official recognition affecting you and your art?

Liang: More or less, it definitely affects me. But the key is how big the effect can be. Does it change your thoughts on art? A man who really loves art will not give up because of failure. For me, art is not only a profession but also a set of mind and a way of living.

Didier: Do you want to talk about artists that you admire, artists who have left a mark on, artists you feel close to?

Liang: There are too many artists I admire. Artists like pre-expressionism and surrealism, especially new expressionism during the 1970s and 1980s in the West have influenced me.

Didier: Shanghai versus Beijing. How are you affected by being a Shanghainese? And now? Have you ever thought of moving to Beijing?

Liang: I have never thought of moving to Beijing. I went to Beijing last year to hold a solo exhibition. Before that, I have not been there for 12 years. Beijing is the political and power center in China. An ordinary person like me will live better in Shanghai.

Didier: Your plans? Going forward, what are your goals in life, art, and in regards to market recognition? How will you execute on those goals?

Liang: I have too many plans to achieve. So I need to live along enough to make it. Perhaps I will draw some masterpieces after 60 years old. It cannot be predicted. Every moment is precious when you are aware of yourself. Healthy living is a permanent goal that is far more important than fame and success.

Didier: What legacy would you like to leave behind you?

Liang: You brought nothing when you came to the world, so it is not important to leave something behind you.