Li Keran is good at painting landscapes, figures and cows, and also works as a calligrapher. He has been devoted to the creation and teaching of Chinese painting for a long time. His landscape painting creation is good at diverting sources, making the past serve the present, and blending Chinese and western, especially introducing the light and shade treatment in western painting into Chinese painting, so that it can be harmoniously integrated into deep traditional pen and ink and traditional modeling images, and has made outstanding achievements. The works have broad artistic conception, profound pen and ink, vivid charm, heavy style, simplicity and conciseness, and combine the beauty of literature, music and modeling in one furnace. His representative works include Spring Rain with Apricot Blossoms in the South of the Yangtze River, Martial Arts Hundred Steps Ladder, All Mountains are Red, After Rain, Green Hills Half Into the Clouds, Shengjing, Yangshuo and Jinggangshan in Li Qing, Cradle of Revolution, Herringbone Waterfall in Huangshan Mountain, and Thousand Rocks Competition Show.
Li Keran's works enjoy a high reputation at home and abroad. In 1950s, Rong Baozhai began to sell his works in Beijing. Take the 4-foot-3-inch driveway as an example. Each picture of cattle grazing is around 60 yuan, and the other is a landscape of 70 yuan. This price has been maintained until the Cultural Revolution. After 1979, the price of Li Keran's paintings rose sharply. A cow of the same size grazed about 7000 ~ 8000 yuan, and a landscape map1~12000 yuan. In 1980s, after China's paintings and calligraphy entered the international auction market, the price of Li Keran's works rose again. 1983, his picture of Uncle Mao enjoying the lotus was sold at Sotheby's in Hong Kong for HK$ 85,000. 1986, his Twilight Map was sold at Christie's in Hong Kong for120,000 Hong Kong dollars. In the next few years, Li Keran produced few works, and the market was almost out of stock. After entering the 1990s, the state banned Li Keran's works from leaving the country, which caused the price of Li Keran's works, which was already in short supply, to rise sharply. 1990, his Sunset over the Yanhe River was sold at Christie's in Hong Kong for 165438+ 10,000 Hong Kong dollars. 1995, his Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival was won by the buyer for 2.42 million yuan in Hanhai, Beijing, which impressed collectors at home and abroad. 1999, his "Nine Cows Map" made a success of 3.3 million yuan in Beijing Pacific. 1999, at the Guardian auction in China, his "All over the Mountains" (2.8 square feet) won the first prize again, and the transaction price reached 4.07 million yuan, creating the highest price of Li Keran's works and Chinese paintings at that time, which immediately shocked the whole painting and calligraphy circle and auction market. In 2000, Beijing Rongbao auction, Li Keran's works broke the news again. Under the fierce bidding of many buyers, the price of his same theme "The Edge of Wan Shanhong" (3. 1 Flat Foot) soared all the way, and finally a lot was sold at a price of 5,065,438+6,000 yuan, which made the auction price of Li Keran's works and the flat foot price of Chinese painting reach a new high. In recent years, Li Keran's works are very popular, regardless of the frame size. In 2002, his Cangyan Waterfall was sold for 654.38+0.43 million yuan in Huachen, Beijing. In 2003, his Nautical Chart of Ya Dan was auctioned in Chongyuan for 6,543,800 yuan+0,760 yuan. In the same year, his "Thousand Stones Show" was sold in Guardian, China for 3.3 million yuan. In 2004, Li Keran's works were unstoppable in the market, showing a blowout market. For example, his "Nine Cows Map" was shot in Beijing Hanhai for 5.5 million yuan; His "Landscape with Rivers and Mountains" earned HK$ 7.038 million at Sotheby's in Hong Kong. In the autumn auction of Beijing Hanhai, his masterpiece Jinggangshan was won by the buyer at a sky-high price of 1 1 10,000 yuan, which made Li Keran's works leap over 10 million yuan for the first time. In 2005, his "Scenery Map of Lijiang River" was sold in Beijing Rongbao at a price of 610.6 million yuan. The author believes that there are four reasons for the high price trend of Li Keran's works: First, he is famous. Li Keran has been crowned with numerous reputations and titles in modern Chinese painting, and his reputation is second to none, which is well known to all women and children. The second is high quality. Li Keran's works have reached a high artistic level and have charming artistic charm. The third is strong personality. Li Keran's works are distinctive in personality, self-styled and unique in painting style. Fourth, the number is small. There are less than 2,000 works of Li Keran in the world, and only about 800 works are in circulation in the market, so things are rare and precious. At present, the market of Li Keran's works is tied for the highest price with Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong and Fu Baoshi.
First, listening.
Li Keran's artistic world is full of sounds of nature, and this silent world has penetrated into his impressionable mind in his childhood.
When I was a child, the first sound that deeply attracted him was the sad piano music played by a blind pianist who was busking and begging along the street. From then on, whenever he heard that long, sad tune, he almost cried with heartache. He often secretly followed the pianist, listened to him play the piano and recite chords, and didn't come back until late at night. 1 1 year-old Keran, since then, has learned a lot of folk tunes and made a small huqin, which is very good.
At the age of 42, Li Keran painted a realistic and freehand figure painting "Singing Picture". This painting is especially special in his series of classical figure paintings. "The bright moon shines on Jiuzhou, and several families are happy and worried." The trembling fingers of the blind violinist who accompanied the girl touched the strings, which seemed to be the sound of the piano, and he kept crying and was extremely sad. That kind of true feelings, when the painter rubbed into his childhood hidden heart sounds for a long time.
Second, enlightenment.
/kloc-When I was 0/3 years old, my primary school had a summer vacation and I could play on the city wall. There is a garden building near the city wall called "Kuaizai Pavilion", and several literati elders are painting in the back room. He slipped through the gap in the city wall and fell from the window to watch. Since then, I have been waiting outside the window for several days, and I am reluctant to go. An elder saw him so obsessed with painting and sighed, "The afterlife is terrible!" The painters called him in to look at the paintings, and since then he has become the "grinding boy" of the old painters. Early in the morning, he went to the well with a small bucket to grind ink, waiting for his elders to paint. After returning home, he was able to recite all the scenery he saw, which surprised the painters and urged the children to worship the landscape painter Qian as their teacher. It turns out that this is the activity place of Jiyi calligraphy and painting club.
After Li Keran became a formal apprentice, Qian painted a landscape with a big picture frame for this little apprentice and wrote dozens of postscript lines. The attached poem says: "Childhood can be used as ink, but the sensitive world should be rare." "You caught it yourself, and I am embarrassed to fly back." Qian had a hunch that the boy who made ink would spread his wings like Dapeng, while he was like a stork flying upside down.
Third, the inscription
1929 is an extraordinary year for Li Keran, 22. That year, he went beyond seven years' education and applied for the first oil painting graduate student of West Lake National Art College. Because of his huge human oil paintings made on the spot, the painting style is vigorous and bold, and it is accepted by President Lin Fengmian, who has a discerning eye. In fact, it was the first time he took an oil pen, and it was also taught to him by Zhang Tiao, a young man from Shandong who came to apply at the same time.
However, in class, he was a little dumbfounded. He picked up a charcoal stick that he had never taken before and prepared to sketch, but he didn't know where to start. He was ashamed of his clumsiness in drawing, and kept holding the drawing board until the professor came to the classroom for guidance. There is a word "Wang" written on the corner of the drawing board. It turned out to be the password hint of the word "Wu", implying yourself. If you don't draw well, you should die
Fourth, brother
Li Keran, a young man during the 18th Art Club. 1929 was taken in front of "Fu Shan Temple" in Hangzhou West Lake. On the left is Zhang Tiao, a close friend, on the right is Li Keran, and in the middle is Chen Weizen.
Li Keran's troubled brother is Zhang Tiao, the young man who taught him oil painting when he got cold feet. Zhang Tiaochang was five years old and was admitted to the Research Department of West Lake National Art College. Because they are both tall, wearing long gowns and long hair; Because they are all poor students, they live in dilapidated buildings and have the lowest monthly rent; It is also because we are inseparable and close to each other; It is also because they are the earliest members of the progressive art group "Eighteen Arts Society", and people call them "two brothers by the West Lake".
The two brothers not only study hard, but also study hard. The dangerous building where they live is just above the Fushan Temple in buddhist nun. There lived an old nun in her seventies in the temple. She got up before dawn to recite the scriptures. Whenever the sound of wooden fish and incense rises, the two brothers get up and read in the morning. Arrange morning classes for two hours, have breakfast, and then go to school.
Zhang loves reading western philosophy and literary theory, and reading China's ancient books and painting history can be influenced. Under the influence of Zhang tiao, Keran read many world literary masterpieces. At that time, both Keran and Zhang Tiao studied oil painting, and the dominant trend of thought of West Lake Chinese Painting Academy was post-impressionism. They have been influenced by Cezanne and Gauguin in painting style, but they always feel that there are still some shortcomings. Zhang tiao's keen thinking and comments on the past and present can be traced back to his study of Chinese painting from a teacher when he was young. I never knew how to draw sketches and oil paintings, and later I became famous in the whole school. In this way, the two brothers have their own nicknames: one is Zhang Lun and the other is Li Shu.
"Two brothers", as students of President Lin Fengmian's personal examiner, had a lot of help to coach his oil paintings before Li Keran's exam, but they were unexpectedly successful and were admitted. Zhang Tiao failed in the list and was admitted to the school after repeated complaints. They encouraged each other and made rapid progress in their studies.
In the early 1930s, both of them participated in the progressive art activities of the 18th Art Society, which attracted the attention and prevention of the authorities. One day, Keran returned to the living room from the library, the door was wide open, books, periodicals and pictures were scattered all over the floor, and the bed quilt and mattress were turned upside down. When Li Keran saw it, he even stole the notebook. Zhang Tiao has been detained in the army prison.
Can dye many visits to prison. Send toothbrush, towel, soap and other daily necessities for the first time, and then send clothes. When Keran visited the prison for the last time, he saw that Zhang Tiao had lost weight. However, Zhang Tiao was optimistic and whispered through the railing: "Don't worry, I squeeze my shoulders and bump my arms with my cellmate every day to exercise, and I also learn Russian from a cellmate ..."
? Keran turned to Mr. Lin Fengmian for help, and Mr. Lin stepped forward as a guarantor. Zhang Tiao was finally released from prison, but he didn't show up at school, but went to Shanghai. Later, he and Tian Han were both leaders of the left-wing literary movement. He went to the Soviet area and served as the Minister of Education of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, he was killed under the left-leaning route. When Keran learned about this situation, it was already a tragic past half a century ago.
Keran in the 1980s still deeply misses Zhang tiao, a "brother by the West Lake". He said: "Under the influence of Comrade Zhang Tiao's education, I have a preliminary understanding of China society and its future, and a preliminary understanding of the correct literary road ... which has played a great role in my life and I will never forget it."