Qian Daxin 钱大昕

Qian Daxin (1922) was born in Shanghai. He received no formal art training, but despite this, he already designed commercial art in his youth. In the 1940s, he worked for the Shirovsky Studio and the China Production Company in Shanghai. He joined the Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House in 1952, where he was attached to the department responsible for designing New Year pictures and propaganda prints. Qian and his Shanghai colleague Ha Qiongwen can be considered as the major sources of influence on the propaganda poster of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Qian remained active as a poster designer until well in the 1980s, although his work was less focussed on political themes and concentrated more on aspects of safe production in industry. A number of his works been included in Chinese museum collections. Qian received a National Propaganda Work Reward in 1983 for his longtime contributions to the field.

Sources:
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
Zhongguo meishuguan (ed.), 中国美术年鉴 1949-1989 (Guilin: Guangxi meishu chubanshe, 1993)

s.r.landsberger@let.leidenuniv.nl

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