Qian Songyan
Qian Songyan , Chinese 錢 松岩 (born September 11, 1899 in Hushu, Jiangsu Province , † September 4, 1985 in Nanjing) was a Chinese painter. He was executive director of the Association of Chinese Artists and Honorary Chairman of the Jiangsu Branch of the Association of Chinese Artists and President of the Jiangsu Academy of Chinese Painting.
Life
Childhood and youth
Qian Songyan was born in 1899 in Hushu, a small farming village near Yixing in Yiangsu Province. Both his father and his grandfather and great-grandfather worked as teachers. At the age of 8 he attended his father Qian Shaoqi's private village school and developed a strong interest in painting and calligraphy.
After the 1911 revolution, his father was appointed principal of Yangxiang's First Elementary School. Deviating from his father's school opinion, he found the school's curriculum as not very challenging and began a five-year study program, half of which consisted of practical fieldwork and the other half of studying traditional painting, its theory and techniques. At 15 he portrayed the hazy mountains of his hometown. During this time, many works on village life were already being made and he was soon known in the area as “The Little Painter”.
Still 15, he left home and attended the Third Senior Primary School of Yixing in Guanlin, 30 kilometers away. In August 1918, at the age of 19, he was admitted to the Third Provincial College of Education in Jiangsu , Wuxi , where he was tutored by such famous artists as Hu Tinglu and Wu Guandai. In 1922 he went back to his home village and married Qin Chunli.
Professional background
The teacher Qian Songyan
In 1923 he graduated from the Wuxi College of Education . Although the college advised him to go to university or to study abroad, he went to Suzhou to teach Chinese language , history and painting and stayed there for four years.
In 1926 his eldest daughter Zijun was born. In August 1927 he accepted the position of rector in a school in Liyang , but in February 1928 he switched to the Wuxi School of Fine Arts , where he taught landscape painting and poetry. He stayed there until July 1931, when he taught at the pedagogical college in Wuxi.
In April 1929 he took part in the 1st National Art Exhibition in Shanghai, causing a sensation in the art scene in Wuxi.
His second daughter, XinLan, was born in August 1932, and in 1933 he and Chen Jiucun founded the ZhenNan Correspondence School of Fine Arts. In 1934 his son Xishan was born, and in 1936 his third daughter Xinmei was born.
On September 7, 1937, the Wuxi School of Education was destroyed by Japanese bombs in the course of the Second Sino- Japanese War and Wuxi fell to the Japanese. Qian Songyan and his family sought refuge in his hometown of Yixing.
In 1938 he returned to Wuxi and first taught at a university there until January 1941. As early as 1940 he was increasingly living from the sale of his pictures, which he drew under the name "Master of Qilu". Landscapes, birds, flowers and chrysanthemums were the main subjects of his works.
In October 1945 he was able to return to the pedagogical college, which was closed in January 1941 due to the Japanese occupation and taught there until 1957.
The painter Qian Songyan
In 1946 several artists founded the Society of Fine Arts, of which he became chairman. In the following years he was involved in several political organizations and joined the Communist Party in 1954.
He showed two of his pictures at the 1st exhibition of Chinese painting in Nanjing in 1956 and thus attracted the attention of all the Provoviz Jiangsu art circles.
In 1957 he got a job on the preparatory committee of the Jiangsu Academy of Chinese Painting. From then on, he traveled a lot between Nanjing and Wuxi. By participating in an exhibition in Moscow , he marked the beginning of his advanced landscape painting. In 1959 he made a long trip to the Silk Road to Datong . During this trip, more than 40 landscapes and over 100 sketches and drawings were created.
Together with Yu Tongfu, Song Wenzhi, Wei Zixi, Zhang WenJjun, he traveled to Lianyungang in November 1959 and created the large-format work entitled Voyage of 1000 Sailing Boats for the JiangSu Salon in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing .
The Jiangsu Academy of Chinese Painters was formally established in March 1960, and he was appointed director. At the same time, he became vice president of the Society of Chinese Arts in Nanjing, which moved him to live in Nanjing. At that time, the Art History Publishing House in Shanghai published its first illustrated book "The Pictures of Qian Songyan". Another illustrated book "Selected Works by Qian Songyan" followed in August in the art publishing house in Wuxi.
Together with other painters, he traveled a total of 12,500 km across the country and was accompanied by such important painters as Fu Baoshi , Yaming, Song Wenzhi and Wei Zixi. That year he painted a very large picture for the Museum of Chinese History. The title was Zhenghe Sails West.
In August 1962 he wrote an article about his ideas for the further development of Chinese painting and the Shanghai Art History Publishing House published his article on how landscape painting reflects the zeitgeist.
After numerous revisions, he completed the painting Rote Felsen in October 1962, which was subsequently duplicated many times. This picture is still used today as a model example in the curriculum of the Chinese art school. In November, he moved to his No. 117 residence in Nanjing.
In 1964, at the age of 65, the Chinese Artists' Society, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Art, held an exhibition of his works in the State Art Gallery in Beijing. The exhibition lasted 14 days and was a complete success. The exhibition then went to Tianjin , Lanzhou , Shanghai and Hong Kong . From July to August he went to Beijing again and painted a picture with Fu Baoshi for the Beijing Salon in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
In 1965 another illustrated book was published by the Shanghai Art Publishing House. For six months, starting in August 1965, he traveled with his wife and granddaughter to various places in Shanxi and Jiangxi provinces as well as to Beijing to make sketches.
The cultural revolution
When the Cultural Revolution broke out in June 1966 , he stopped painting. In 1967 he was accused of being a landowner, bureaucrat and commoner. He suffered greatly from the confiscation of his property and personal accusations and slander, and was forced to "re-educate through labor." In 1968, at the age of 69, he was sent to Zhaos Village in Jintan to do physical labor. This included breaking ice with your bare hands and washing vegetables in a harsh winter. Both hands had arthritis . After an incident of unconsciousness, he was able to return to Nanjing to recover.
Now 70 years old, he was sent to the 57th cadre school, a so-called education camp, in the suburbs of Zhenjiang . He secretly painted on envelopes and on cigarette paper, often on muddy ground. Occasionally he would talk to the writer Zhao Pei while doing field work. On February 6, 1971, he left the cadre school and returned to Nanjing.
Qian Songyan and modern China
A year later, he was allowed to paint again, and he joined the ranks of the Jiangsu Fine Arts Art and Culture Bureau. He sketched the newly built Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge and the Jiangnan Coal Mines.
In July, he was invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to paint a wall-filling picture titled The Great Wall of China for the Chinese representative's office in the United Nations building.
In August he wrote the article “New Ways to Create New National Images from the Old” and published it on September 3, 1972 in the Guangming Daily. In 1973 he took part in the Chinese Painting Exhibition in Jiangsu.
At the time of the 1974 Spring Festival, he painted an equally huge picture in Wuxi for the arts and crafts salon of the Guangzhou Fair, entitled Eternal Spring in the Splendor of the Country .
He took part in the National Exhibition of Chinese Painting with the painting “Evergreen Pine Over Taishan”. However, the picture was banned and removed from the exhibition. In 1975 he attended the 4th National People's Congress in Beijing. During this time, he named his house on Zhongyang Lu as "Wan Shi Lou" (unshakable stone house).
In April he visited an engineering project in Yangzhou that was central to hydraulics and then painted Slender West Lake , a beautiful lake near Yangzhou . In November he went back to his hometown with his family, where he saw and painted many familiar places.
The time of big pictures
During this time, many of his large-scale and wall-filling pictures were created. In 1976 he painted a huge picture called The Great Wall for the Chinese Embassy in the Czech Republic .
In 1977 he served the reactivated Jiangsu Academy of Chinese Painting, of which he became its director, and created the colossal image of the dawn in the garden of the rendezvous for the memorial hall for Chairman Mao .
In July he painted the equally huge picture The Jinggangshan Waterfall for the Beijing Hotel and the Jiaxing South Pacific for Beijing Airport.
In June 1978 he suffered heat stroke from which he recovered after a stay in hospital. In 1978 he began to paint with fingers, which continued to produce versatile results.
In 1979, now 80 years old, the State Gallery of Jiangsu organized an exhibition for him and presented 80 of his works from different periods.
In June he attended the 5th National People's Congress in Beijing and was invited by the Ministry of Culture to paint a picture for the Summer Palace. In October he attended the 4th Congress of the Chinese Literature and Art Association. Another illustrated book of his was published that year. On October 15, 1979, his painting The Infinite Beauty of the Great Wall was given to French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as a state gift.
In April 1980, he took part in the Chinese Society for Literature and Art Congress. He was briefly elected honorary president at the congress of the Jiangsu Chinese Artists Association.
In August another illustrated book was published by him with 101 works with a foreword by Lai Shaoqi. In October, he wrote the foreword to the recently published book "Occasional Exchange in the Field - Dialogues with Comrade Qian Songyan" by Zhao Pei , with whom he was at the correctional facility .
At the age of 82, he participated in the Jiangsu Art Exhibition in 1981.
From April to September 1982 he spent seven months working on the painting "Spectacular Scenes from Lake Taihus", which he created for the Jiangsu Salon of the Great People's Hall in Beijing. He returned to Nanjing in September and applied for re-admission to the Communist Party, of which he was re-admitted as a member in January 1983, and was recognized as a full member in February 1984.
The film documentation of the Shanghai film studio
From July to November he stayed with his eldest daughter in Beijing. During this time, a film studio from Shanghai began making a documentary about his art. In August the volume “Fingerbilder” was published, which consisted of pictures drawn with fingers. In November he returned to Nanjing and painted "Pine Trees in Xiangshan ."
On January 21, 1984, his wife Qin Chunli passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage. He was hospitalized in March for swollen legs and loss of appetite, and was diagnosed with stomach cancer. On April 6, he had an operation that removed 90 percent of his stomach.
In April, 100 of his works were shown in the "The Latest Works of Qian Songyan" exhibition at Jiangsu Art Gallery.
In June he received an envoy from the Wuxi government. He planned to donate 100 of his paintings to the city, as well as his private residence. It was decided to convert his house into a memorial. He was released from the hospital at the end of June and moved to the Zhongshanling Sanatorium.
Sickness and death
Despite his illness and fragile health, he hurried to add to his manuscripts and poetic notes. Another illustrated book was published in early 1985 and exhibitions in Fujian and Hangzhou followed . In April, a representative from Yixing City came to receive his donation of pictures.
His youngest daughter, Xinmei, organized an exhibition for him at Shandong State Gallery in Jinan in May .
In mid-May, the film team from the Shanghai film studio made additional recordings for their documentary. When in good shape, he accompanied the team to many sites including Linggu Temple, MingXiaoling Mausoleum, and Mochou Lake.
On May 30th, he developed a high fever resulting from pneumonia and was hospitalized in a state of unconsciousness. On August 22nd, the stomach cancer had spread to the liver and bile duct, causing cirrhosis of the liver. When he regained consciousness on August 25th, he asked about the main news that had happened in the country.
On September 4, 1985, seven days before his 87th birthday, Qian Songyan died at 5:08 am at the age of 86.
On September 11th, the memorial service was held at the Jiangsu Party Committee Hall in Nanjing. Over 500 mourners came, including representatives from all over China. His ashes were laid out in a shrine with his portrait, flanked by a melancholy poem:
- A master of his era who understood both tradition and innovation. With his hands working and always frugal, he has been a role model for people for 1,000 years.
In the following years his works met with increasing international interest and are now in large and well-known auction houses such as B. Sotheby's and Christie's traded.
Works (selection from the illustrated book Qian Songyan by Qian Xingmei)
- 1926: "10,000 bamboo after the rain"
- 1928: "Nanguo School"
- 1936: "Yu Berg Gate of the Sword"
- 1939: "The only way up the Hua Mountain"
- 1943: "Studies in the summer under the pine trees in the shade"
- 1940s (exact date unknown): "Harmonie" (calligraphy in written form oracle bones )
- 1946: "Healthy Long Life"
- 1957: "Moscow - Beijing" on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia
- 1959: "Coal transport"
- 1961: "Huang Mountain above the Fog" (Beihai / North Sea), fan picture
- 1961: "Red rocks"
- 1961: "Gigantic river and mountains"
- 1960s (exact date unknown): "Meiyuan"
- 1970: "Yanan"
- 1970s (exact date unknown): "Zhong Nan Hai" ( Zhongnanhai ), finger painting
- 1978: "Waterfall"
- 1970 (middle, exact date unknown): "The Infinite Beauty of the Great Wall"
- 1981: "Xiaoxiang House" ( Cao Xueqin's home )
- 1981: "Am Taihu "
- 1982: "Memory of Home"
- 1984: "Spring on the Mochou"
- 1985: "Eternal Harmony" on the occasion of the International Youth Day in Nanjing
Literature (selection)
Bilingual Chinese / English
- Longing for Home -Paintings of Qian Songyan Morning Glory Press Beijing 1987, ISBN 7-5054-0069-X
- East Asian Paintings Chinese Masters "Qian Songyan Modern" 2006 North America Fine Arts Publishing House ISBN 0-9780667-5-8
- Qian Songyan Shanshui Ceye Jingpin Xuanji by GUWUXUANCHUBANSHE 1997, ISBN 7-80574-292-8 J.232
- "Twelve Nanjing Master Artists" - Selected Album 2004 Nanjing Verlag ISBN 7-80614-909-0 J.66
Chinese
- Qian Songyan illustrated book, written by Qian Xinmei, Jiangsu Art Publishing House Nanjing August 2005 1st edition ISBN 7-5344-1947-6 (钱 松岩 画集 / 钱 心 梅 编 江苏 美术 出版社 2005 年 8 月 第 1 版)
- Qian Songyan illustrated book, written by Qian Xinmei and Kong Xiangdong, Nanjing Phönix Verlag, December 2006 1st edition ISBN 7-80643-933-1 /J.74 (钱 松岩 画集 / 钱 心 梅, 孔祥东 编 南京 凤凰 出版社 2006 年12 月 第 1 版)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Modern East Asian Paintings - Chinese Masters - Qian Songyan . 1st edition. North American Fine Arts Publishing House, Vancouver, Canada 2006, ISBN 0-9780667-5-8 , pp. 5 .
- ^ A b c Longing for Home - Paintings of Qian Songyan . Morning Glory Press, Beijing 1987, ISBN 7-5054-0069-X , pp. 109 .
- ^ Artnet. Retrieved January 6, 2017 (German).
- ↑ Hui Lai Ping: Qian Songyan Flower and Landscape Paintings . Ed .: Han Mo Xuan. 1st edition. A38. Han Mo Xuan Publishing Co., Ltd., Hong Kong 2006, ISBN 962-7530-93-X , p. E14 .
- ↑ Hui Lai Piung: Qian Songyan Flower and Landscape Painting . Ed .: Han Mo Xuan. 1st edition. A38. Han Mo Xuan Publishing Co., Ltd., Hong Kong 2005, ISBN 962-7530-93-X , p. E15 .
- ↑ Hui Lai Ping: Qian Songyan Flower and Landscape painting . Ed .: Han Mo Xuan. 1st edition. A38. Haun Mo Xuan Publisher Co., Ltd., Hong Kong 2006, ISBN 962-7530-93-X , p. E16, E17 .
- ↑ Hui lai Ping: Qian Songyan Flower and Landscape Paintings . Ed .: Han Mo Xuan. 1st edition. A38. Han Mo Xuan Publisher Co., Ltd., Hong Kong 2006, ISBN 962-7530-93-X , p. E18, E19 .
- ↑ Hui Lai Ping: Qian Songyan Flower and Landscape Paintings . Ed .: Hui Lai Ping. 1st edition. A38. Hui Lai Ping publisher Co., Ltd., Hong Kong 2006, ISBN 962-7530-93-X , p. E19 .
- ↑ a b c d Hui Lai Ping: Qian Songyan - Flower and Landscape Paintings . Ed .: Hui Lai Ping. 1st edition. A38. Hui Lai Ping Publisher Co., Ltd., Hong Kong 2006, ISBN 962-7530-93-X , p. E20-23 .
- ↑ Sotheby’s
- ↑ Christie's
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Qian, Songyan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 錢 松岩 (Chinese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Chinese painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 11, 1899 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hushu , Jiangsu Province |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th September 1985 |
| Place of death | Nanjing |