Cheng Shifa, 1921-2007



Chinese painter Cheng Shifa, an esteemed artist in his country and internationally who spent a period of his life working in comics and continued to produce work published that way even after his more formal arts career took off, died Tuesday in Shanghai. He was 86. Shifa was considered a master of traditional arts, including landscapes, calligraphy and later in his life well-regarded portraits of working class existence.

After studying at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Art in the late 1930s with the support of relatives (his father having died when the artist was nine), Shifa began painting as a young man. He turned an eye towards comics in 1949 and fostered a relationship with the Chinese publisher Shanghai Art Publishing Agency in 1952. His series included Rulin Waishi (with Wu Jingzi), La Foret des Lettres, Peau Peinte, Kon Yiji, Cent Huit Tableaux d'apres la Veridique Histoire d'Ah (maybe his most famous work, published in 1963), Zhaoshutun and Nannuono, Ebing and Sangluo and Tenace jusqu'a la Victoire. The first book on that list won a prize at the Leipzig International Book Exhibition in 1959.

It looks like that Shifa's role may have been more that of an illustrator of stories rather than a cartoonist or even comics artist in the sense that we think of such things; I'm not completely able to tell, and it's not like a precise definition makes his artistic achievement any less than what it is. He is described in the Shanghai Daily piece as an "old kid" with a humble demeanor. He is survived by two sons.
 
posted 1:26 am PST | Permalink
 

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