Charming Longmen folk-art painting titled “Little Mountain Village” by Tan Chifa (1939-2004) dated summer of 1990. Signed in black ink at the lower right and with the red seal of the Chinese Longmen Farmer Painting Association below. In the 1950s and 1960s, peasant paintings were used for political propaganda to promote and glorify the labor and prosperity of workers and peasants. Hundreds of Chinese, including many educated youths with foundations in Chinese painting, were sent from the cities to the countryside to learn from the peasants and to paint. Tan Chifa was the first president of the Longmen Farmer Painting Association and a major early artist working in the genre. From 1972 to his retirement in 1999, Tan Chifa mentored and trained well over one hundred students to create modern folk-art paintings drawn from rural life and rooted in the colorful folk customs of South China. The exaggerated subjects depicted in ink and bold gouache colors capture the society and culture of rural village life. The paintings produced by Longmen artists tend to be more expressive and abstract than the two other schools of peasant paintings that emerged in Huxian and Jinshan. Tan was a published author of articles promoting the Longmen school of painting and was an award-winning artist whose work has been exhibited worldwide. In 1988, Tan Chifa was designated “Pioneer of Chinese Folk-Art Work” by the Ministry of Culture. Measures 27 1/4” x 19” plus a narrow white border. Very good overall condition with no tape or tape stains on the back.