Li Keran
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Li Keran (; 26 March 1907 – 5 December 1989),
art name An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names ''hào'' (in Mandarin), ''gō'' (in Japanese), ''ho'' (in Korean), and ''tên hiệu'' (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by East Asian artists, poets and writers. The ...
Sanqi, was a contemporary Chinese '' guohua'' painter and art educator. Considered one of the most important Chinese artists in the latter half of the 20th century, he was also an influential professor at the
Central Academy of Fine Arts The Central Academy of Fine Arts or CAFA is an art academy under the direct charge of the Ministry of Education of China. The Manila Bulletin calls the school "China’s most prestigious and renowned art academy". It is one of the most selectiv ...
where he taught a generation of Chinese artists. Although trained in Western oil painting, he was known for his traditional
literati painting Ink wash painting ( zh, t=水墨畫, s=水墨画, p=shuǐmòhuà; ja, 水墨画, translit=suiboku-ga or ja, 墨絵, translit=sumi-e; ko, 수묵화, translit=sumukhwa) is a type of Chinese ink brush painting which uses black ink, such as tha ...
s with influences from
Qi Baishi Qi Baishi (1 January 1864 – 16 September 1957) was a Chinese painter, noted for the whimsical, often playful style of his works. Born to a peasant family from Xiangtan, Hunan, Qi taught himself to paint, sparked by the Manual of the Musta ...
and
Huang Binhong Huáng Bīnhóng (; 1865–1955) was a Chinese literati painter and art historian born in Jinhua, Zhejiang province. His ancestral home was She County, Anhui province.Cihai: Page 2056. He was the grandson of artist Huang Fengliu. He would lat ...
, two renowned masters in Chinese painting. Li's paintings are highly valued at auctions, with several fetching hundreds of millions of yuan. His personal auction record was set by ''Thousands of Hills in a Crimsoned View'' (also translated as ''Landscape in Red''), one of his most celebrated works, which sold for (US$46 million) in June 2012.


Biography

Li was born Li Yongshun () on 26 March 1907 in
Xuzhou Xuzhou (徐州), also known as Pengcheng (彭城) in ancient times, is a major city in northwestern Jiangsu province, China. The city, with a recorded population of 9,083,790 at the 2020 census (3,135,660 of which lived in the built-up area ma ...
,
Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...
province; his parents were illiterate. He showed a talent in art from an early age, and studied painting from Qian Shizhi, a local painter. He enrolled in Shanghai Art Academy in 1923. After graduating in 1925, he returned to Xuzhou and worked as a teacher. In 1929, Li entered National Academy of Arts in Hangzhou for graduate studies in Western art. There, he studied oil painting under the president Lin Fengmian and the French professor André Claudot. In 1931, he joined the Eighteen Art Society (or Yiba Art Society, 一八艺社), which was closed by the government for its leftism. Since the postgraduate school of the academy was defunct, he had to leave, along with other members, in the next year. He went back and taught in Xuzhou again. During the
Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
, Li worked for the Nationalist government, creating many anti-Japanese posters and murals for war propaganda. He became a lecturer in Chinese painting at the National Academy of Arts exiled in Chongqing, in 1943. His talent was appreciated by Xu Beihong, who invited him to teach at the National Beiping Art School in 1946. He was mentored by the renowned traditional artists
Qi Baishi Qi Baishi (1 January 1864 – 16 September 1957) was a Chinese painter, noted for the whimsical, often playful style of his works. Born to a peasant family from Xiangtan, Hunan, Qi taught himself to paint, sparked by the Manual of the Musta ...
and
Huang Binhong Huáng Bīnhóng (; 1865–1955) was a Chinese literati painter and art historian born in Jinhua, Zhejiang province. His ancestral home was She County, Anhui province.Cihai: Page 2056. He was the grandson of artist Huang Fengliu. He would lat ...
at the academy. In 1954, Li, Zhang Ding and Luo Ming teamed up for a three-months tour in the lower Yangzte, created some landscape paintings on-site. Li had another longer tour among southern China since the summer of 1956, he finished more paintings meantime which are significant for the contemporary Chinese paintings. The works illustrating Mao Zedong's poems had been mainstream in mainland China since the 1950s, ''Liupanshan'' was Li's first step into that, and his style changed afterward. His celebrated painting, ''Wan Shan Hong Bian'' (万山红遍, ''Thousands of Hills in a Crimsoned View'', also translated as ''Landscape in Red''), which influenced many Chinese landscape painters, was completed in 1964. During the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
, Li was severely criticized for his signature style, the black landscape paintings. After the end of the revolution, he resumed painting and was appointed as the first president of China National Academy of Painting in 1979. In later life Li had many followers, who formed the "Li School" of the 1980s. Li innovated Chinese landscape painting by integrating native and western techniques, inasmuch as he was inspired by Rembrandt's
chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...
. By introducing shadowing, he developed "backlighting landscape". Besides, he also advocates the practice of sketching or painting from nature on-site. Li is also noted for the enlivened
water buffalo The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called the domestic water buffalo or Asian water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, North America, So ...
es in his paintings. His calligraphy is deemed to be distinctive, and he is also a competent
huqin ''Huqin'' () is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes u ...
player.


Art market

Li Keran is one of the most valued Chinese artists in art market. In May 2012, his painting ''Shaoshan'', which depicts
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
's former residence in
Shaoshan Shaoshan () is a county-level city in Hunan Province, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Xiangtan. Qingxi Town is its seat. Located on the mid-eastern Hunan and the mid-north of Xiangtan, Shaoshan is bordered by ...
, was sold by China Guardian Auction for , breaking his previous record of 107 million set by the painting ''Long March''. ''Wan Shan Hong Bian'' (''Thousands of Hills in a Crimsoned View'', or ''Landscape in Red''), Li's 1964 masterpiece inspired by Mao's famous poem "
Changsha Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a popul ...
", was sold at
Poly Auction China Poly Group Corporation () is a state owned Chinese business group among 102 central state owned enterprises under the supervision of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC). It is both prim ...
in June 2012 for a personal record price of (US$46 million). It was the largest of seven versions Li painted between 1961 and 1964. In 2015, the smallest version of the seven was sold by China Guardian for . The painting had been acquired for just 80 yuan forty years earlier by Beijing's Rong Bao Zhai, which sold it in 2000 for 5 million yuan. In October 2017, Li's ''Magnificent Mountains With Gushy Cascades'' was sold at
Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
Hong Kong auction for HK$122 million (US$15.6 million).


Personal life

Li married Su E in 1931, and they had four children. After Su died in 1938, he remarried sculptor Zou Peizhu in 1944. They had another three children. Li died on 5 December 1989 from a heart attack.


References


External links


Li Keran and his Painting Gallery
at China Online Museum {{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Keran 1907 births 1989 deaths 20th-century Chinese painters Educators from Xuzhou Painters from Xuzhou Central Academy of Fine Arts faculty China Academy of Art alumni Burials at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery