Bridging cultures: a chinese artist in the Illawarra

Tie-Hua Huang began his childhood artistic training under the master painter Zhu Qizhan in Shanghai. He also knew Tang Yun and other artists of that outstanding calibre. The training he gained was in the traditional methods of Chinese art from calligraphy and ink painting to seal-carving. His family had a love of the arts, both traditional and contemporary, and had an outward, international vision. They had built a collection of many famous and valuable art-works. Life was totally changed for the Huang Family by the Cultural Revolution and Tie-Hua Huang's art had to change also, denying the traditions he had learnt. His arrival in Australia in 1987 meant that he was not only dealing with the impact a new environment, but was free once more to pursue the traditional work which was so important to him. As an artist he made his environment the source for his work, particularly the area where he settled—the Illawarra District of the South Coast of New South Wales. The combination of his fresh vision of this 'new' land, his contact with western art and the freedom to re-visit his traditional style has allowed him to create works that give a new vision of the Australian landscape and of the details of things that surround the artist in his everyday life. The research led to a major exhibition of this work in the Wollongong City Gallery in 1996. The annotations, with photographic records, that supplement the exhibition give an autobiographical survey of the life and influences that have shaped the work, including personal and social matters, tradition and modernity and the blending of influences from east and west.