http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/michaelasanda-1613073-tu-zhiwei1/

His story sounds almost too impossible to believe: born to peasant parents in a remote rural village of Guangdong Province, China, in 1951, Zhiwei got his start in oil painting when the Beijing government sent an "official" artist to his village to create a public portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong. Then a teenager, Zhiwei watched the artist work for an entire day, then asked to borrow samples of his paints and returned the next day to setup alongside the professional and prepare his own oil portait of Mao.As the story goes, the villages were so impressed by Zhiwei's finished work that they chose it over the government artist's portrait for display."It's a long time gone now, almost 40 years,“ Zhiwei says in a recent phone interview from his current home in Chicago, Ill. "But they did choose it, and it was on the second floor of the school building in my village, facing outside, for many years.“After achieving widespread recognition and acclaim in China, and studying at the Guangzhu Institute of Fine Arts, Zhiwei traveled to United States in 1987 to study at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. He was named president of OPA (Oil Painters of America – OPA - represents more than 3,400 artists throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico) in 2004 and still travels back to China every year for exhibits and to collect his preferred painting supplies; last year he visited when his hometown opened a museum in his honor.

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Zhiwei Tu's paintings have been added to the permanent collections of many notable Chinese museums, including the National Museum in Beijing. His works have been shown throughout China and featured in Fine Art magazine of China, Painter of Fine Art of Hong Kong, Artist Magazine of Taiwan, and various art books and magazines in the U.S. Articles about Tu and his paintings appear regularly in many major art magazines including Art Gallery of Guangdong, and Art Gallery of Tiangjing, Jiangsu Art Magazine, Guangdong Pictorial Magazine, and Zhejiang Pictorial Magazine, as well as on China's television news and in many newspapers.

Art books collecting his work, such as Tu's Oil Paintings, Weng Shan Han Mo, and Zhiwei Tu, were published in Taiwan, China and United States, respectively. Many articles about Tu and his art have been written by well-known art critics and fellow artists.In 2006, the city of Shaoguan in Guangdong Province, China, held a celebration to dedicate an entire art museum honoring the works of Tu Zhiwei. The entrance is located off an interior courtyard inside the impressive Shaoguan Cultural Center.Mr. Tu now maintains working art studios in a Chicago suburb and in his home province of Guangdong, China. He travels extensively between the U.S., Asia, and Europe, yet remains one of the most prolific oil painters known to modern times.His fondest dream is to establish a permanent Art Institute in China for young people of various world cultures to learn and work together to fulfill their own artistic visions.

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Shirl Smithson, former President of Oil Painters of America, compiled this coffee-table sized book of works by Zhiwei Tu. The paintings are expertly placed in their artistic and historical context in the introductory foreword by Prof. Chi Ke of the Guangzhou Institute of Fine Arts. Included among the reproductions are details from a number of mural-sized works now in museums and private collections, as well as a compelling collection of figurative images from Chinese legend, contemporary China, and Tibet. The book is a handsome work of art in itself. A beautiful retrospective of this modern master's most dramatic works to date.

Sound: Vanessa Mae - Butterfly Lovers (Violin Concerto)

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Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanuwww.slideshare.net/michaelasanda