Master Explores the Beauty of Oriental Jasper

Hu Xiaowu

His achievements

Qian Gaochao represents the best of oriental jasper sculpture in China. As the best sculptor in this field, he has created numerous oriental jasper masterpieces.Some of his artworks are now in the collections of Chinas best museums and galleries. Some of his masterpieces have won him various prizes at national exhibitions. The latest proof of his supremacy and excellence as an oriental jasper sculptor came in at a national fair held in Shenzhen in May of this year. At this fair, his latest sculpture entitled “The Stories of Confucius” was granted the cultural creative prize of Chinese Arts and Crafts Award. Qian was a high-profile artist at the fair. It did not take a rocket scientist to figure out how popular he was. His boutique attracted large crowds of visitors and his artworks sold well.

He attracted national attention first in 1994 when his oriental jasper sculpture named “Singing Cicada” was exhibited at a national exhibition of stone carvings. The artwork went into a collection. In 2001, his sculpture of “Achievements of King Qian” won a special prize at a national stone artworks exhibition. His prize-winning sculpture won him a large following. The sculpture later went into the collections of the China Museum of Arts and Crafts, which is a national recognition of Qians art. He wept when he received the notification from the museum.

Qian Gaochao has exhibited artworks and demonstrated his skills in France and Italy. At the invitation of the government of Macao, he taught a 2-week stone-carving course in Macao. In 2007 and 2008, he won special prizes at the eighth and ninth exhibition of senior Chinese masters of arts and crafts.

His Footsteps

Qian Gaochao graduated from high school 36 years ago and left his home in Changhua, Zhejiang to learn stone-carving in Qingtian, a county in southern Zhejiang famed for its precious stone and stone-carving. Qian came back to Changhua at the age of 20, determined to dedicate his life to stone carving in Changhua, a region where oriental jasper is produced.

Qian was from a poverty-stricken family. He had a passion for drawing in his childhood years. His mother sometimes sent corn gruel to school in exchange of useless chalk stubs, which her son could use to draw on the ground or on stone walls. He went to Qingtian with nine colleagues, chosen to study under the guidance of established masters in Qingtian. He was the only one of the ten apprentices who stuck to the bittersweet end and came home with honor. He has total dedication to the art.

His dedication pays off.

Oriental jasper has been known as a precious stone for a long time. In ancient times, oriental jasper was used as high-class material for seal stones for its bright royal color. However, it was not until 2003 that it was announced as one of the six national species of precious stones of China. Oriental jasper is a calling card of Linan, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Hangzhou. Qian Gaochao has long been a calling card of oriental jasper.

His Art

Qians 36-year creative exploration into the beauty of the precious stone has made his art unique. Oriental jasper is a stone that has red stains that look like blood, hence the name of bloodstone.

The bloodstains in a piece of oriental jasper go in a random way. The best sculpture takes into account the shape and spread of the reds and highlights the stones beauty and original shape. As each raw stone has special patterns of reds, the artist finds it a great challenge making the stains and the theme come together harmoniously and artistically.

Qian Gaochao is great at using special carving skills. His first attention-grabbing masterpiece “Singing Cicada” portrays cicada wings with super-thin lines, which is regarded an incredible stunt.

“The Sun Rises from East”, a large-scale sculpture that portrays the revolutionary history, reflects his mastery of figures. In order to give vigor to the images of Mao Zedong and other revolutionary leaders in the sculpture, he studied the images of Mao Zedong and others for hours a day for a long period of time and tried his hands in experiments. He failed three times in carving the images. But he succeeded at his fourth try.

The prize-winning collection of 350 statues of Chinese kings and emperors underscores Qian Gaochaos capability to convince experts and critics. The portraits of these kings and emperors are made of four kinds of precious stones. All of these stones are in the shape of seals. Each stone has a portrait of an emperor, with an inscription in a tiny script to relate the deeds or misdeeds of a specific emperor.

Qian Gaochao has also published a books and papers on oriental jasper and the stone carving. He now serves as curator of the Changhua Oriental Jasper Museum.□