"If you haven't been to Tibet, you dream for this holy place; if you are in Tibet, you hesitate to leave it; if you have left Tibet, you wish to come back again", this is what most people think about Tibet.

The same comes to the famous Chinese painter Zhai Yuefei, who has held his first individual painting exhibition in Beijing recently to mark his best time and most cherished memories in Tibet.

Titled "In Tibet and not", the exhibition displays the painter's works done both in Tibet and beyond it during the past 15 years. A coincidence occurs that his works mark the 15 years he had spent in Tibet in his youth.

Zhai Yuefei recalled his past days in Tibet and shared his stories with reporters from China Tibet Online.

Choosing Tibet to start his dream

In 1983, Zhai Yuefei graduated from the Arts Department of Shanxi University at the age of 21. When everyone thought that he would join the faculty in the university, he resolutely decided to go to Tibet though.

A strong aspiration in Zhai Yuefei's heart was to express the artistic temperament of Tibet under the influence of the wide spread western techniques of painting and the "Tibetan paintings" by famous painter Chen Danqing in 1980.

In Tibet, he was wholly shocked by the religion, culture, architecture and so on there. During his work in the Tibet People's Publishing House, he often wandered around Tibet and sketched from nature with Han Shuli, now secretary-general in Tibet branch of Chinese Artists Association.

At the same time, he began to express his feelings of culture and life in Tibet through canvas painting. When the Art Nouveau Movement occurred in 1985, he joined in and finished a series of painting concerning Tibet with other four painters. They discussed and debated on art; meanwhile they were touched and inspired by Tibetan art. The works created at that period were collected in Modern Chinese Art History.

Tibet gave Zhai Yuefei endless power to pursue his dream of art, therefore he finished large amount of paintings with unexhausted inspirations during the 1990s.

Time flies. When it came to the 15th year, he was appointed another post in Beijing. He left Tibet, where his dream began, with grief in 1998. 

Losses and Gains after leaving Tibet

During the first one and two years after leaving Tibet, Zhai Yuefei was lost in his art career for environment change. He was disappointed; the life in Tibet influenced him so much with various cultural elements surrounding around him that he did not know how to begin his art creation again.

At the beginning, he tried to imitate some of his former paintings to find inspirations from them. He was often lost in meditation, thinking how to jump out of the old thinking stereotype in his mind.

Actually, the time not in Tibet gave him more space to create works and follow his own heart without being limited by things he saw in Tibet. So he began to explore more inspirations deeply rooted in his mind and created many innovative works with easy and fluent lines. 

In 2006, Zhai Yuefei returned to Tibet for Performance Art "interlink" Tibet and "send"Mani, painting "@" on Mani stones to send blessing and prayer.

In 2009, he published Tibet in My Eyes-Seeing through the Tibetan Buddhist Scripture Art, in which his experience in Tibet was revealed to readers.

Extending art on a larger scale 

After leaving Tibet, Zhai Yuefei condensed his understanding of art and brought it to an upper level. His works are no longer limited by traditional paintings, but are created with more innovation, such as Installation Art and Performance Art.

No matter he is in Tibet or not, a strong affection and close bond with Tibet are reflected in every work of his.

Now, as a painter in Chinese Museum of Nationalities, inspired by art works of various ethnic groups, Zhai Yuefei intends to form his art thoughts from a more comprehensive perspective.