Asian-Antiquities
Artist Biographies Pg. 1
Selected Artist Biographies
Wu Changshuo (1844-1927)
Wu Changshuo comes from a family of scholars in Anji, Zhejiang Province. He became famous for his seal-carving, and though he learned Chinese painting later in life he became on of the greatest and most original painters of the late Qing Dynasty. Wu Changshuo was a government official in Andong County, Liaoning Province, in the later years of the Qing Dynasty, and was adept at flower and bird painting, poetry, calligraphy and seal-carving. Wu Changshuo belived that "painting and seal-carving were inseperable arts". His style of painting was swift, brisk and overpowering. His colouring was unconventional, bright and heavy. He liked to use Western red pigment to color the fruits he painted.
Qi Baishi (1863-1957)
Qi Baishi was a versatile artist. Although he could paint excellent human figures, animals, and landscapes, he was mainly known for his flowers, birds, insects and fish, which were the major themes of his paintings later in life.
Qi Baishi's works have a fresh lyrical quality and he sought to achieve a "likeness both in shape and spirit" of the things he painted. He mastered the ability of suggesting the essence of his subject with a few brief strokes. One can perceive in his art a high sense of reality. His paintings exude the sense of life, joy, optimism and humor that was a reflection of his own world view.
Qi Baishi is perhaps the most noted contemporary Chinese painter of whimsical, often playful style of his works.
Some of Baishi's major influences include the early Qing Dynasty painter Bada Shanren (or Chu Ta) and the Ming Dynasty artist Xu Wei.
His pseudonyms include Qí Huáng (齊璜) and Qí Wèiqīng (齐渭清).
The subjects of Qi Baishi's paintings include almost everything, commonly animals, scenery, figures, toys, vegetables, and so on. He theorized that "paintings must be something between likeness and unlikeness, much like today's vulgarians, but not like to cheat popular people". In his later years, many of his works depict mice, shrimp, or birds.
Qi was also good at seal carving and called himself "the fortune of three hundred stone seals".
In 1953 Qi Baishi was elected to the president of the Association of Chinese Artists. He died in Beijing in 1957.
Huang Binhong (1864-1955)
Huang Binhong was born in Zhejiang Province, the grandson of the well regarded artist Huang Fengliu. Huang studied painting and then spent many years editing literary and art journals in Shanghai. Huang Binhong taught painting at fine arts colleges in Shanghai and Beijng until he moved to Hangzhou in 1948 where he taught at the West Lake Art College.
Huang Binhong was a master of freehand landscape painting and he was well versed in the works of the great masters of the past. Though he immitated many of their techniques, Huang Binhong experimented with the use of ink and stroke. He achieved effects with shading and layering that have seldom been equilled. Huang Binhong achieved a simple yet profound effect in his landscapes by the use of thick dark ink over which he applied light or heavy coloring. His work was also known for its powerful brushwork and its fresh approach to composition.
In 1953 on his 90th birthday, Huang Binhong was awarded the title of "Outstanding Painter of the Chinese People." After his death in 1955, a Huang Binhong Museum was established in his home in Hangzhou.
Xu Beihong (1895-1963)
Xu Beihong was a master of both oils and Chinese ink. Most of Xu Beihong works, however, were in the Chinese traditional style. In his efforts to create a new form of national art, Xu Beihong combined Chinese brush and ink techniques with Western perspective and methods of composition. Xu Beihong integrated firm and bold brush strokes with the precise delineation of form.
As an art teacher, Xu Beihong advocated the subordination of technique to artistic conception and emphasizes the importance of the artist's experiences in life. Of all of the Painters of the modern era, it can be safely said that Xu Beihong is the one painter most responsible for the direction taken in the modern Chinese Art world. The policies enacted by Xu Beihong at the beginning of the Communist Era continue to control not only offical Government Policy towards the arts, but they continue to control the overall direction taken in the various Art Colleges and Universities throughout China.
After his death in 1953, the Xu Beihong Museum was established at his home in Beijing.
Lotus
by
Wu Changshou
Fishing Boats
by
Qi Baishi
(Chi Pai Shih)
Landscape
by
Huag Binhong
Horse
by
Hsu Beihong
