Artist Han Meilin works as hard as 'aged cattle'

A sculpture by Han Meilin. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The show, titled Meilin's World in Venice, will be opened on Oct 27 at Venice International University. The displayed works will include his paintings, sketches and sculptures, tracing his artistic evolution since the 1980s when he was inspired by the ancient rock paintings of China.

At the time, Han had traveled to the Helan Mountains in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, and was struck by the primitive drawings on cliffs that depict the life of the northern ethnic tribes thousands of years ago.

He studied ancient art on rocks not only when traveling within the country but also outside, and adopted many patterns from there in his creations.

Han later focused on rock art to ancient Chinese characters inscribed on antiques such as oracle bones, bronze ware, ceramics and bricks.

His research has not only enriched his art vocabulary but also brought into focus designs and characters invented by ancient Chinese. In 2008, he published Tian Shu (A Book from Heaven) as a catalog of the primitive inscriptions.