In the early 1980s, "The Coal Miner Series" by Yan Sun was first exhibited in the senior exhibition as a significant component towards his BFA degree. This series depicted coal miners in various aspects: their hard-working environment, their generous and forthright characteristics, as well as their longing for a happy and desirable life. The Coal Miner Series laid the foundation for Yan Sun’s realism, a style remarkably expressed through close observation and detailed depiction of everyday life. Surprisingly, the artist did not stumble upon these coal miners by accident; he was one of them. For nearly seven years, he lived and worked as a coal miner at a mine in Northwest China. Thus, the entire experience and inspiration for his art derived from the artist’s own life.
Featured in national and international art exhibitions and various media, Yan Sun's paintings have received numerous awards. His paintings and life experiences attract his audience. Yan Sun's father was a doctor, and his mother was a pharmacist. Many people wonder why Yan Sun ended up as a coal miner for seven years and how he ventured into the field of art.
Yan Sun was born into a family classified as one of the "Five Black Categories" during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. At 14, he became one of the youngest "young intellectuals" sent to the countryside in 1968. In the village, Yan experienced almost every aspect of farm work, from cultivating wheat to raising pigs. After three years, he left the village and was assigned to be a coal miner. Daily, he worked on the face, busy among the pillars and timber. Many friends died due to accidents and gas explosions. When asked about his life in the mine, Yan Sun summarized it as "finding light in the darkest corner, seeing colors in the dreariest place, and remaining hopeful during the most hopeless times."
In the coal mine, Yan Sun met his first art teacher, Deng Sanzhi, a former art editor turned custodian. Eager to learn art, Yan Sun asked Mr. Deng to teach him. However, Mr. Deng, like many Chinese intellectuals persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, was in a dark phase of life and unwilling to teach. Despite disappointment, Yan continued visiting. One day, he left a note on Deng's door expressing his desire to learn art. The next day, stepping out of the dark mine tunnel, he found Mr. Deng waiting. "You can paint. You can be a real artist," Mr. Deng told Yan Sun emphatically. Later, Mr. Deng explained why he changed his mind and saw potential in Yan's note, recognizing an artist's character and gift. From then on, Yan Sun's happiest moments were private, informal art classes at Deng's apartment after a day of hard work in the mine. Though it took half an hour to reach, the distance didn't deter him from pursuing his dream.
Yan Sun's and his teacher's efforts bore fruit. In 1977, after ten years, China's universities reinstated entrance exams, and Yan Sun was among the first group of college students post the Cultural Revolution. During his four college years, he received rigorous training in Western painting and extensively studied Western art.
The ingenuous realism of Yan Sun doesn’t relate to deliberate fanciness and fineness; rather, it upholds the plain beauty of the Nature. This realism manifested itself in the Coal Miner Series.
Generation After Generation
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Going to the Working Face
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Women Coal Miners
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