Cao Yong

Who is Cao Yong?

Cao Yong is a Chinese artist whose work depicts Tibet. He spent a year alone in the mountains of Tibet, and the paintings he produced were exhibited in Beijing in early 1989. He was subsequently arrested by the Chinese Authorities with the Beijing Police burning seven of the paintings. He escaped with his fiancée Aya Goda to Japan.

Yong began painting when he was 11 years old. Due to his family background, he was considered politically questionable by the Chinese authorities. He studied for a short period with the noted artist Yu Ren who was staying briefly in Xinxian. He attended Henan University and graduated with a BA in Fine Arts. Following his graduation, he took a position as Assistant Professor of Art at the University Of Tibet. He spent seven years in Tibet and spent a year living alone in mountain caves of Ali, West Tibet, so he could copy the remains of ancient Tibetan wall paintings of the Guge kingdom.

In 1989, he went over to Japan after a private exhibition of Beijing. He continued producing “The Split Layer of Earth – Mount Kailas” series while he was engaged in the wall painting production of the commerce space. The notable work produced aqua fantasy of 60mx 4 m in Yokosuka Daiei in 1991 and produced dragons of 50mx 8 m in Ise Bunkamura in 1993. In 1992, he held a private exhibition in the O ART Museum of Tokyo.