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Jean Francois Millet, 19th century French artist celebrated farm workers. Among his paintings, The Sower (1850), Man Spreading Manure (1852), The Reapers (1853), depicted noble farmers trapped in a cycle of poverty and soil. The colors were muted, an expression of his deep melancholy. He had painted them during a period his body was tormented with illness and his life harassed by debt. His works were a forerunner of Expressionism. His subjects were profoundly appealing to Marxists.

50 year old Zheng Fu Lu cannot be described as a Marxist. Like most artists, he is apolitical. Born in Shanghai in 1959, he is obviously a child of privilege, his late father, once a civic official. His teeth are excellent. His complexion, smooth. His English, impeccable. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Shanghai Arts and Crafts School. Although he studied the classical artists, he cannot remember which master most influenced his work. The Chinese scroll artists, usually anonymous? The Renaissance Masters? The Modernists? He gestures to other modern abstracts, one in the distinctive style of Dong Kingman.

Excessively polite, he divulges very little about his private life. Sunshades conceal the distrust in his eyes. Like most people who lived under China’s repressive regime, he has little confidence in journalists, but he does furnish information in dribbles, between importunate spectators drawn to his booth in Union Square, where I encountered him in San Francisco. His work stood out among other artists exhibiting their own oils and watercolors.

Sponsored into The US by Reverend Malatesta of The University of San Francisco, he earned his Master’s Degree at The San Francisco Academy of Art in 1993, where he later taught. He married a graphic artist, whom he met in school. I did not press him further. He left in 1992 to attend his father’s funeral. His widowed mother still resides in Shanghai, with no desire to leave.

He has had several exhibitions in many different parts of The US, and now owns his own galleries, which showcases Asian art. He prefers life in San Francisco, where he could apply himself free from political pressure, even if his conservative style appeals to the ruling party. He likes to experiment with varied styles and forms. With the manner the people of San Francisco have responded to his work, it would appear he is on the right track. Some of his paintings are on permanent exhibition at The University of San Francisco.