Hu Mingzhi was born in 1940 in Lianshui, Jiangsu province. He entered the middle school attached to the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, in 1958 and graduated from the PLA University of Arts in 1965, becoming a teacher at that university. Throughout his long career, Hu Mingzhi has had many positions including Leader of the Fine Art Dance and Singing Troupe in Shenyang Military Area Command, Secretary of the Creation and 
Evaluation Committee of the Chinese Artists’ Association; Vice Director of the Consulting Department, Director of the Research Department, and General Secretary of the South China Art Center of the Chinese Artists’ Association. In 1987, Hu Mingzhi was the Chinese Artists’ Association liaison for the Harkness House Exhibition in New York, presented by Robert Hefner. He was also a judge for the 1st Guanshanyue Chinese Painting Award for the 1997 One Hundred Excellent Artists in Chinese Painting Circle. Hu Mingzhi was on the Organizational Committee for bidding for the 29th Olympic games in Beijing, and was on the Selection Committee to choose the emblem of the 2008 Olympic games. Subsequently, he lived in Beijing where he worked as a private advisor for numerous arts organizations.
Tiananmen Morning, 1986
Oil on Canvas
36" x 48" (91cm x 122cm)About this work
Hu Mingzhi’s “Tiananmen Morning” brilliantly captures a daily activity one can see in Beijing: Soldiers marching across Tiananmen Square to raise the Chinese flag. The soft, pink-hued colors and lack of shadows indicate it is quite early and the wet pavement shows it has just rained. The artist has emphasized the expansiveness of the square by choosing a low vantage point that looks up at sweeping clouds silhouetting the soldiers as they march south out of Tiananmen Gate. This wonderfully atmospheric picture is representative of transitional Chinese oil painting in the post-Cultural Revolution period of the 1980’s. It is not meant to be political; it reflects a common scene in a realistic, almost Photorealist style.
