Jiannan Huang - The Olympic Spirit of Harmony, Peace, and Unity

”The Flower of the Winter Olympics" by Jiannan Huang (2021)

Jiannan Huang, a blue-chip artist from China, has completed two new paintings that were inspired by his work with the "Cheering for the Olympics" committee for the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. "Cheering for the Olympics" is a program that is sponsored by the International Olympic Committee and China for promoting the Olympic spirit and culture. These two new paintings are shining examples of his work to communicate about the spirit of the Olympics and express the themes of harmony, peace, and unity.

"The Flower of the Winter Olympics" (48cm x 48cm) is a painting that welcomes you with a garden of flowers, flying birds, a sparkling lake, and snow-capped mountains. The entire painting is cheerful and bright, and thoughtfully crafted by Huang in his own style of traditional Chinese and contemporary modernistic art. He chose vivid colors to reflect the morning glow of sunrise with the many shades of red, pink, blue, and purple against the snow-capped mountains in the background. The lake has circular ripples radiating from the center and the water is sparkling with dots of colors including white, blue, green, plum, red, and green.

The symbol of the circle is important in Chinese culture, and his painted circles, dots, ripples in the lake, and overall circular flow of the painting have significant meaning in expressing the Olympic spirit. As Huang explains, "World peace is a circle, harmony is a circle, and unity is a circle. There is little circle in the big circle, me in you, and you in me." The circle can also be seen as a symbol of eternity and representing enclosure into the integrity of the whole.

The row of flowers are upright and vibrant as they form a semi-circle around the lake, expressing life and beauty. There are five birds flying in formation and unity and at the bottom of the painting, Huang has painted five round circles that represent the many nations of the world, an abstract representation of the interlocking Olympic circles of the five continents - Europe, Africa, America, Asia, and Oceania.

According to Huang, "The Flower of the Winter Olympics" is a painting about life in full bloom, harmony, and keeping the Olympic spirit eternal. In addition to the theme of unity, the Olympics are the embodiment of beauty, art, justice, bravery, honor, fun, vitality, progress and peace."

”Olympic Lights" by Jiannan Huang (2021)

In Jiannan Huang's ”Olympic Lights" (45cm x 63cm) he presents the theme of harmony, peace, and unity with the light of the Olympics expressed as tall torches that reach to the heavens and shine back on the earth. The stars are twinkling under the night sky as the sun is setting and lighting the sky red. The plants and flowers line the path as a fire rolls down the hill from the sacred Mount Olympia.

"With this torch, there will be light, unity, friendship, peace, and justice in the world," states Huang, "and under the sacred flame, the flowers will bloom and the vegetation will be full of vitality. The Olympic spirit emphasizes mutual understanding, friendship and unity. In this atmosphere, there is no cultural prejudice, no contradictions and conflicts, but the cultural landscape of human society in abundance."

While faster, higher, stronger is part of the Olympic spirit, Huang feels that participation is more important than winning, and the Olympic spirit of promoting unity, harmony and peace is the most important of all. Therefore, the Olympics are a light of hope that allows the integration of Eastern and Western civilizations, just like the blooming flowers,to gather between heaven and earth in an atmosphere of complementary co-existence.