Li Keran

Li Keran and Beohar Rammanohar Sinha 1957

Li Keran (born March 26, 1907 in Xuzhou , Jiangsu Province , † December 5, 1989 in Beijing ) was one of the most popular Chinese painters of the 20th century. He was particularly popular for his depiction of water buffalo. But he is also considered an innovator in Chinese landscape painting.

biography

Li Keran was in Xuzhou , Province of Jiangsu , as Li Jongshun born. His father was a peasant with no land who later became a fisherman.

In 1923, Li Keran went to Shanghai and studied at the art school. The painter Qian Shichi was one of his teachers. In 1929, Li Keran moved to Hangzhou State Art Academy , where he turned to Western oil painting. Here he was tutored by the French painter André Claudot, who had an immense influence on his later style through Western oil painting. In the same year he joined the "Progressive Artist Society" co-founded by Lu Xun .

After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 , Li Keran worked under Guo Moruo in the Political Department of the National Government's Military Council, which moved to Chongqing in 1938 . During these years he lived in a farmhouse on the outskirts next to a water buffalo stable. This was the reason for him to dedicate himself to the water buffalo as a subject . The water buffalo was a symbol of the humiliation of China, in which submission and strength unite.

Works

• 1964: Landscape in Red . Ink and color on paper, 131 cm × 84 cm. Poly Auction, Beijing June 3, 2012 $ 30,341 million

Individual evidence

1. ^ Li Keran , Encyclopædia Britannica .

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Li is the family name here, Keran is the first name.