Li Keran (1907-1989) was born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu
Province. His artistic education started in 1929 when he entered the
Research Section of the Hangzhou State Xihu Art College. He learned oil
painting from the famous French artist Corroto. In 1931, he joined the
'August One Art Association', which was disbanded by the Guomindang
government. After the Japanese invasion, Li eventually arrived in
Chongqing, where he worked under Zhou Enlai
in the wartime propaganda effort. He worked as a teacher at the Beiping
State Art Institute from 1946 on, and for more than ten years studied
traditional Chinese painting with masters such as Qi Baishi and Huang
Binhong. He was appointed as a professor at the Central Academy of Fine
Arts in 1949.
As an expert in landscape painting, Li made great
contributions to the reform of traditional Chinese landscape painting.
At the same time, during periods of political upheaval such as the Cultural Revolution, he was prosecuted precisely because his expertise was seen as out of touch with the political demands of the moment.
Sources:
Important Art of New China 1949-1979 (China Guardian Auction Catalogue 1997, Beijing)
Julia F. Andrews, Painters and Politics in the People's Republic of China 1949-1979 (Berkeley, etc.: University of California Press, 1994)
Chen Lusheng, Xin Zhongguo meishu tushi—1949-1966 [The Art History of the People's Republic of China—1949-1966] (Beijing: Zhongguo qingnian chubanshe, 2000) [in Chinese]
Kuiyi Shen, "Publishing Posters Before the Cultural Revolution", Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, vol. 12, No. 2 (Fall 2000), pp. 177-202
Michael Sullivan, Modern Chinese Artists -- A Biographical Dictionary (Berkeley, etc:
University of California Press, 2006)
Zhongguo meishuguan (ed.), 中国美术年鉴 1949-1989 (Guilin: Guangxi meishu chubanshe, 1993)
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