Qi Baishi (AD 1864~1957), whose given name was Huang, also known as Bisheng, also known as Baishi, also known as Mu Jushi, Jie Shan Weng, Ji Ping Laoren, etc., was a native of Xiangtan, Hunan. Qi Baishi was born in a farm family. He only attended private school for half a year when he was young. He once herded cattle and chopped firewood at home, and started doing carpentry when he was young. Later, he got acquainted with local literati and worked hard to learn painting, poetry, calligraphy, and seal cutting. He once made a living by painting portraits and selling paintings. In his middle age, Qi Baishi left and returned from his hometown "five times" and traveled to various places in the north and south, including Xi'an, Beijing, Tianjin, Guilin, Wuzhou, Guangzhou, Qinzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing and other places, enjoying a full view of the motherland. The famous mountains and rivers expanded his mind and horizons. Wherever he went, he never left his hand with the brush and painted many sketches. When he returned to his hometown, he bought a house to live in and named it "Ji Ping Tang".
Qi Baishi's paintings
In 1917, when Qi Baishi went to Beijing to sell paintings and engrave paintings, he met the painter Chen Shizeng. After settling in Beijing, they discussed art together. Master Chen once advised Qi Baishi to change his meticulous painting method and create his own new ideas. He accepted the persuasion and pondered the new painting method behind closed doors. Qi Baishi absorbed the painting techniques of the freehand painters Xu Wei, Zhu Fen, Shi Tao and Wu Changshuo of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, integrated the expression techniques of traditional freehand painting and folk painting, paid attention to his own creation, and realized the "decline reform" to create new The painting style formed the unique artistic style of Qi School. In his painting practice, Qi Baishi concluded his own painting theory, which is the view that "the beauty lies between similarity and dissimilarity, too much similarity is kitsch, and not enough similarity is deceiving the world".
Qi Zishi's paintings have a wide range of themes, and he is best at painting flowers, birds, insects and fish. His brushwork is bold and bold, the colors are warm and vivid, and the shapes are concise. Especially the shrimps in his paintings are active, the red flowers and ink leaves are wild, and there is also a kind of meticulous grass and insects. The characteristics of the same painting are combined with the freehand brushwork of flowers, which is vivid and lively. Qi Baishi's landscape paintings include "Borrowing Mountains" and "Twenty-Four Scenes of Shimen" in his early years. In his later years, he painted "Landscapes with Snow" and "Zhu Rong Asahi". The compositions are simple and the brushwork is concise. In terms of figure painting, Qi Baishi's works also present a simple and implicit charm. Qi Baishi is an all-around painter, and his calligraphy and seal cutting are also unique and original. In inheriting the tradition, calligraphy is based on casualness, with seal script and running script being the best. After learning from the Zhejiang School, seal cutting mostly adopted the techniques of the Han Dynasty, with unique layouts, simple and majestic calligraphy, sharp and unrestrained handling of the knife, and a variety of seals. Qi Baishi is the author of poetry collections such as "The Poems of Borrowing Mountains" and "The Poems of Baishi".
Since 1926, Qi Baishi was employed as a professor at the Beijing Art School. During the Anti-Japanese War, Qi Baishi resolutely resigned from his teaching position in the school under the jurisdiction of the Japanese invaders. He began teaching again after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. After the founding of New China, Qi Baishi served as honorary professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, librarian of the Central Research Institute of Literature and History, and chairman of the Chinese Artists Association. After he was over 90 years old, Qi Baishi was still engaged in calligraphy, painting, and seal cutting activities, and won the 1955 International Peace Prize. On the afternoon of September 16, 1957, Qi Baishi died of heart failure in Beijing at the age of 94.