Painter and printmaker Wang Gongyi and painter Farooq Hassan, portrayed in the same episode of Oregon Art Beat, have not only obvious differences, but also unexpected commonalities. While each artist is fascinating in his or her own right, comparing and contrasting the two adds depth to the discovery.

Wang Gongyi

Wang Gongyi, born in 1946 in China, grew up in the shadow of the Chinese Revolution. Her mother died when she was a teenager, her high-school classmates shunned her over political power struggles, and she was sent to the countryside where she fed pigs and threshed grain, with the occasional respite of life-drawing practice. Commenting on a photograph of herself from those days, she points out, "I smile no matter what."

When the tumult of China’s Cultural Revolution died down in 1978 and universities reopened, Gongyi made a series of woodblock prints inspired by a revolutionary feminist. The prints were the first steps in what culminated in her stardom in the Chinese art world. "I lucked out in terms of success," is her modest explanation.

Gongyi’s first look at the world outside of communist China was both devastating and inspiring. One of four Chinese artists selected to study in France, she remembers contrasting the Louvre — "magnificent, regal, modern" — with China’s Palace Museum, which she describes as "in ruins." But it was also in France that barriers of language and culture forced her to give up trying to understand in a conventional sense, and encouraged her to experiment with more immediate physical perceptions, which led to a series of paintings of a single conch shell, an experiment she repeated with waves on the Oregon coast.

Invited by Portland Art Museum curator Gordon Gilkey to be an artist-in-residence at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Gongyi found her new home. Though she has accepted invitations to show her work — including her painting "Multnomah Falls" — in China, she has lived in Portland for a decade.

"Spending 10 years here has rejuvenated me mentally and physically," the artist says.

Farooq Hassan

Farooq Hassan, who has lived in Portland for only two years, fled his native Iraq, leaving behind not only all his work, but his fame. The designer of more than 80 stamps for the Iraqi government and the creator of a stylistically diverse body of work well-known in his native country, the artist now paints in the kitchen of his tiny apartment.

"This painting is the only thing in here," Hassan says. "I don’t feel that I’m in a small place. I feel just me and the painting."

Born in 1939, Hassan has an art career that stretches back a half-century. Here, in a country where his work is practically unknown, he has begun the process of rebuilding his reputation.

"I want to create a beautiful painting," Hassan explains. "The first thing I choose: the woman. The woman is beautiful, of course. I believe the woman is the origin of life."

Over the years, Hassan’s women have undergone some changes. He used to paint veiled women, but these days the women in his paintings wear no veils: "This woman is the truth; the truth is open."

Starting all over again late in life and far from his origins is, Hassan allows, like losing himself, "but I try to renew myself." It is not difficult to imagine eight years from now when this masterful artist who was once a national treasure in Iraq, has found the same rejuvenation Gongyi describes and has secured his rightful place in Portland, which he, to our great good fortune, has chosen to call home.

What stands out among Wang Gongyi and Farooq Hassan’s commonalities is that Portland welcomed both of them, and they, in turn, are enriching all of us.

The Oregon Art Beat special featuring the artists airs December 27 at 8:00pm on Oregon Public Broadcasting. To learn more, visit <www.opb.org/artbeat>.