Art Types involved-in: Chinese Painting
Qi Baishi Biography:
Qi Baishi (1864.1.1-1957.9.16; Chinese name 齐白石), also called Qi Chunzhi previously, was a modern master of traditional Chinese painting who was born in Xiangtan County, the city of Changsha, Hunan Province in Qing Dynasty. Picasso once praised him to be an outstanding Chinese painter.
In his early years, he was a carpenter and later made a living by selling paintings. He settled down in Beijing when he was 57 years old. Qi Baishi was good at painting flowers and birds, worms, landscape and figures. He was famous for his portray of shrimps. He was an honorary professor at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Chairman of Chinese Artists Association and was also in charge of other positions. His representative works are “The Sound of Frogs Issues Forth from the Mountain Spring for Ten Miles Around”, “Ink Shrimp” and others. His well-known students are Li Kuchan, Li Keran, Mei Lanfang, and so on. He was detained by Japanese during WWII. In 1995, he was honored with the title of corresponding academician of the National Academy of Art and Science by the East Germany. In 1956, the World Peace Council decided to award him international peace prize of 1955. The Former residence of Qi Baishi is a Key cultural relic protection site in China.
Qi Baishi painting “Towering Pines and Cypress” was sold for 425.5 million RMB at the 2011 Spring China Guardian Auctions, creating the record of modern Chinese painting and calligraphy works at auctions. His 1925 work “Twelve Hanging Scrolls of Landscape Paintings” was evaluated for 1.5 billion RMB.
Qi Baishi's Representative Works Exhibitions:
On Aprial, 4th, 1954, Chinese Artists Association organized “Exhibition of Qi Baishi’s Paintings” at the Palace Museum.
Graduation School:
· Auction Info of Qi Baishi Works >>