Asian Art: Huxian Chinese Peasant Paintings

Huxian Peasant Paintings come from Huxian, Shaanxi Province, near Xi'an, China. The style is said to have originated in the late 1950s when Hu County peasants who were building a new reservoir began painting pictures of the work in progress in order to record the work and to inspire them to work better. These first peasant painters did not even have proper paints, but used soot, lime, and the red soil of the area to make paint. The County Communist Party Committee organized art classes so that professionals could teach these peasants how to paint.

Huxian peasants continued to paint, and during China's 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution their work was shown abroad to prove to the outside world that common, ordinary workers could produce works of art. Ordinary life was the subject of these paintings, and work was often the focus.

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