Studies On Master Li Keran’s Personal Style Of Landscape Painting

As a prominent painter in modern Chinese history,Li Keran was born in an average family of Xuzhou in 1907 and apprenticed to landscape painter Qian Shizhi starting to learn traditional Chinese painting at the age of 13.When he was 22,Li was admitted to Hangzhou National Art College,where he was influenced by master Lin Fengmian’s artistic concepts and guided by master Xu Beihong.Li also became a student of the masters Qi Baishi and Huang Binhong and learned the essence of traditional Chinese landscape paintings from them.In 1950s,as Chinese paintings were faced with the reform of meeting the requirement of reflecting our new life as we strive to build socialism.Chinese painters decided to work out of their studios and go deep into the life with the purpose of sketching from nature.Li completed the transformation of his personal painting style from initial exploration to final formation periods during the process of sketching from nature and creating environment.Under the guidance of concepts such as sketching to the view,creating to the view,mining one time but polishing for ten times,and artistic conception expression,Li formed a unique style of reformed landscape painting in his artistic works and drew series of landscape paintings with the patriotic theme.During this period of time,Li also practiced and developed his painting techniques with great achievement:he broke through original painting pattern and made innovative studies on ink language on the basis of inheriting the ink language of traditional landscape paintings.Starting from Wu Zhen’s wet pen and Wang Meng’s complicated stroke and inheriting Huang Binhong’s concept of "five strokes and seven times of ink",Li Keran paid more attention to sketching during his art practice,combined artistic creation with social life and spirit of the time closely,laid emphases on the piling up of ink color and the vigorous and flowery painting appearance,and built his main painting ideas of "painting with no starting and ending signs" and "ink appears with strokes" and techniques of piling up ink and crumbling ink forming his unique painting style.Although masters Li Keran and Lu Yanshao had the similar artistic position and influence in modern Chinese painting world,they differed from each other enormously in sketching concepts,theme selection,stroke and ink conceptions,creation ideas and composition art and layout due to different aesthetic ideas and artistic ideals caused by their art education and living environment.Therefore,an analysis of these two painters’ differences can help to identify the peculiarity of master Li Keran’s artistic works and highlight his artistic characteristics,which will provide guidance for the development of contemporary landscape painting.