Yuan Xikun’s Art Diplomacy
Yuan Xikun with his sculpture, Deng Xiaoping, Chief Architect of China’s Reform and Opening Up. At age 74, Yuan Xikun has been hailed as an “art wizard” after creating masterpieces in oil painting, ink painting and sculpture. He has also been dubbed an “artistic diplomat” and actively participated in international cultural and artistic exchange with fruitful results.
Yuan is a world-renowned painter and sculptor, as well as a member of the Standing Committee of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and curator of Beijing Jintai Art Museum.
Welcome to the Jungle
Yuan Xikun was born in August 1944 in Kunming, Yunnan Province. His father, Yuan Xiaocen, was a famous master of Chinese painting, and his mother was a biology teacher. Growing up in such a family, Yuan was deeply influenced by family tradition and became obsessed with nature and animals.
In 1962, 18-year-old Yuan Xikun enrolled in the high school attached to the Kunming Institute of Arts. A rare opportunity at the school enabled him to accompany a group of literary and art workers on a trip to ethnic minority settlements deep in the mountains, which broadened his vision. He became even more fascinated with nature and animals and continued down the path towards his art career.
As a young painter in the 1970s, Yuan followed an inspection team organized by the Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences to Xishuangbanna in Yunnan Province to draw animal specimens. He then spent five years living in the jungle—a dense forest along the southwestern border of China. He became completely immersed in the creation of animal paintings.
If the words and deeds of his father and mentor Jiang Zhaohe laid a solid foundation for his traditional Chinese painting creation, the long five years of dedicated practice in Xishuangbanna provided an opportunity for him to build a unique style.
The sketches from this period fueled the rest of his artistic career. For an artist, inspiration—the emotions and impulses of artistic creation—strikes like lightning. In Yuan’s art is the advocacy of “moment feelings,” which embed vividness in each of his works, somthing that is hardly found in traditional paintings. 
October 16, 1992: Yuan Xikun paints a portrait of Nelson Mandela, then president of South Africa’s African National Congress.
Mountain Gentleman by Yuan Xikun, oil on canvas, 1955, housed at Beijing Jintai Art Museum.Portrait Diplomacy
In the 1980s, China’s reform and opening up provided artists with rare historical opportunities.
Yuan Xikun climbed to the peak of his career in lockstep with China’s rise after the introduction of the reform and opening up: He frequently traveled abroad and caught global attention with his unique artistic techniques and expressiveness.
In January 1999, Yuan became the first Asian oil painter to hold a personal exhibition at the United Nations headquarters. Many of his oil paintings have been acquired by world-famous museums.
“Mr. Yuan’s greatness lies in the combination of ancient and modern art,” opined the curator of Berlin Museum. “The themes and techniques of his paintings are rooted in the past, but his thinking faces the future. He skillfully combines the spirit of Chinese paintings and the material of Western oil paintings with his superb techniques, thus establishing a style completely free from the limitations of time and space.”
In the 1990s, Yuan Xikun began working on ink-and-wash portraits. He has been blessed with opportunities to paint more than 100 presidents and dignitaries from around the world including former UN Secretaries-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan and former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch.
Foreign media outlets have noted that Yuan Xikun’s exposure to key global political figures raises his influence far beyond painting. He has been nicknamed an “artistic diplomat.”
“I have no problem with artists who hide in ivory towers, express themselves in a limited format and produce meager work,” Yuan declares. “But my own philosophy is that an artist should use talent to repay society and address concerns closest to the people, which in turn fosters broader vision within the artistic realm.”
Wishing You Every Success by Yuan Xikun, ink and wash.
An expert in depicting animals, Yuan Xikun brings them to life with his exquisite skills.
Billy Graham by Yuan Xikun.Sculpture Need Not Be Translated
Some Chinese people assert that one cannot be known for experience, accomplishment and fame until reaching his or her fifties.
Sculpture represents a culmination of Yuan Xikun’s art exploration. “Using my talent, limited and unlimited, I built a monument that I admire,” Yuan explained when asked about the reason why he delved into sculpture.
The year 2009 marked the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Bulgaria. “During that year, Bulgaria’s economy was undergoing a rough time,” illustrated Yuan. “I wanted to use the spirit of Bulgarian revolutionary Hristo Botev to inspire the Bulgarian people to persevere, so I decided to send a bronze statue to his hometown. Sculpture need not be translated.”
On February 21, 2018, famous American Christian evangelist Billy Graham passed away. On February 24, Yuan’s Reverend Billy Graham and Sower Graham debuted.
“I was lucky to meet him 10 years ago when Billy Graham offered aid after the catastrophic Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan,” recalled Yuan. “We did the same thing in different ways.”
“Over the last few years, I have sculpted many celebrities who have driven human progress to preserve their ‘spiritual weight’ and commemorate their works.”
One of the two Graham statues will be placed in China and the other in the United States to build a cultural bridge of friendship between the two countries.
Yuan Xikun has received as many international medals as anyone for his sculptures. To date, he has completed more than 50 statues for global titans.
His celebrity sculptures have been acquired by the governments of Japan, Greece, Russia and the United States as well as museums and international organizations. Eleven of his celebrity sculptures and three animal sculptures were selected as national gifts for various heads of state.
In 2016, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Minor Planet Center named Asteroid 214883 after Yuan Xikun.
As for his reputation in global art circles and plans for the future, Yuan Xikun remains humble: “Jack Kerouac said, ‘forever young, always in tears.’ I will never be a master; I will never forget my country.”