Flower
Wang Jiyuan
1973
- YEAR:1973
- MEDIUM:Oil on canvas
- DIMENSIONS:76×63.5 cm
Introduction
Wang Jiyuan was a key member of the art groups Heavenly Horse Society (Tianmahui) and Storm Society (Juelanshe), as well as a founder of Yiyuan Painting Research Institute. Praised by Cai Yuanpei as “an artist tasked with reviving modern Chinese art,” he served as Academic Director and Acting President of the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts. His exhibitions and overseas studies in the 1930s form a condensed history of Republican-era art exchange. Equally skilled in ink and oil paintings, Wang dedicated himself to blending the spirit of Eastern paintings with the techniques of Western art. Flower is a remarkable piece from his later years, painted on the eve of his “30th Anniversary of Life in America” painting and calligraphy exhibition. The vivid cluster of red blooms, though rendered in oil, incorporates the free, expressive brushwork of Chinese ink painting. At the same time, the neatly inscribed calligraphic text on the right embodies his heritage in Chinese paintings.
