艺术与设计 - Master artist Mr. Qian Laizhong just passed away at Huaxi Shangjin Hospital

Mr. Qian Laizhong

Art master, former executive vice chairman of the Sichuan Federation of Literary and Art Circles, former chairman of the Sichuan Artists Association, honorary chairman, former director of the Sichuan Museum of Fine Arts, director of the Sichuan CPPCC Painting and Calligraphy Institute, Mr. Qian Laizhong died at 8:50 a.m. on December 29, 2022 in Chengdu Huaxi Shangjin Hospital at the age of 80.
Mr. Qian was born in Fushun County, Sichuan in 1942 and graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 1968.Mr. Qianhas been engaged in culture and art for more than 50 years, and has served as the director of the art museum of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, the director of the Sichuan Provincial Culture Museum, a member of the party group of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture, deputy director, deputy secretary of the party group of the Sichuan Provincial Federation of Philosophy and Social Sciences, vice chairman, secretary of the party group of the Sichuan Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles, executive vice chairman, chairman of the Sichuan Artists Association, honorary chairman, director of the Sichuan Art Museum He is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese Federation of Literary and Art Circles, a director of the Chinese Artists Association, a vice president of the Chinese Carpets Association, and a member of the Chinese Calligraphers Association. He also founded the art theory publication Modern Art magazine, serving as its president and chief editor. For more than fifty years, he has devoted himself with great enthusiasm to the cause of literature and art, especially to the cause of art, and has nurtured a large number of outstanding talents for the cause of literature and art in Sichuan, supported the launch of a number of influential art works, and had a profound impact on the cause of literature and art in Sichuan Province. At the same time, he also has high attainments in the fields of Chinese painting, calligraphy, printmaking and couplets.

Mr. Qianwas born in 1942 in the ancient city of Fushun on the banks of the Tuo River. The year he was born, the war was in a state of stalemate. Despite the country's poverty, his father sent him to private school at the age of four and a half.
By the timeMr. Qianwas seven or eight years old, he was able to recite the classics such as "The University" and "The Mean". At that time, it was fashionable to put cigarette patches in cigarettes with matches of the same size, on which are some of the characters in the four classical novels like "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West", "Dream of the Red Chamber", etc., which was very attractive toMr. Qian, and he copied them one by one. His own childish brush and ink began to depict the image of the hero in his heart. Since then, painting has been a seed of happiness, deeply rooted inMr. Qian's life.
When he was a student in Fushun Second Middle School, the cinema in the county wanted to draw movie advertisement posters, and because of the low cost of hiringMr. Qian, the cinema often asked him to draw them. In 1959,Mr. Qianwalked from Fushun to Luzhou for a day to apply for the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts.Success does not come without effort, andMr. Qianwas admitted to the secondary art school affiliated with the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute with a good score of first in the Luzhou examination area.

The picture shows the teenager Qian Laizhong (first from left) when he graduated from the secondary school affiliated with Sichuan Fine Arts Institute

In 1961, during his study at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts,Mr. Qian, who was 19 years old at the time, went deep into the farming community and created a painting of "Old Farmer Participating in the Farmers' Meeting", in which the characters were different in appearance and very evocative. This was the first timeMr. Qiancreated a painting independently, and the work participated in the provincial art exhibition that year. From then on,Mr. Qianreally entered the state of creation.

In 1972, the first peak ofMr. Qian's creation, Qian created the ink painting "The Rising Sun" and the black-and-white print "Slaves Make History" in succession, when Qian had already graduated and was assigned to work in the Cultural Center of Zhaoge County, Liangshan Prefecture. At that time, the traces of slave society were still very deep in Daliangshan, and slavery system was widely existed.Mr. Qianwrote the outline, matched the description and engraved the prints, and created a series of 15 prints on the subject of slaves in one go. Later, the provincial art association also sent two painters to experience life in Waligou, where the influence of slavery was deep-rooted in Zhaoge. In that year,Mr. Qiancreated a series of prints entitled "Slaves Make History" and participated in the national exhibition "Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of Mao Zedong's Speech at the Yan'an Literary and Art Symposium". The following year, the works were sent to the United States, Britain, France, Japan and other countries and Hong Kong for touring exhibitions. This series of prints created a whirlwind from the western interior of China at a time when art creation was at a low ebb nationwide. This series of prints contributed greatly to the establishment of Sichuan's leading position in the country in black and white printmaking.

Photo shows Qian Laizhong (first from left)
The first art training course in Liangshan Prefecture was held in Puge County in March 1975

During his three years of work in Liangshan,Mr. Qianheld classes in addition to creation. In Liangshan,Mr. Qianheld art training courses from county to county, cultivating a batch of painting talents for the local area. Through this process of popularization and improvement, the students trained byMr. Qianare now found all over the country, and some have gone abroad.Mr. Qianalways believes that teaching and learning are mutually beneficial. While teaching students painting knowledge and techniques, students also give back to me a constant stream of creative materials.

The picture shows a class on peasant painting in Liangshan Prefecture held in May 1976 in Ganluo County
(Qian Laizhong is in the center of the first row of the picture)

The picture shows Qian Laizhong (third from right) leading Liangshan art students to Muli County to sketch

During the Cultural Revolution,Mr. Qiancame to Chongqing and held art training courses in the army and enterprises for three consecutive years, teaching the basic techniques of art such as sketching. Those great years not only sharpenedMr. Qian's brush, but also refined his open-minded temperament.

After serving as the deputy director of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture, Qian Laizhong still often sent culture to the grassroots, to the troops

Mr. Qian has been engaged in art creation for more than 50 years, and in his early years, he was engaged in the creation of prints, decorative paintings and propaganda paintings. In 1973, many of his prints were sent to the United States, England, France, Japan, Germany and other countries and regions for cultural exchange exhibitions by the Ministry of Culture and the Chinese Art Association.

The picture shows "Qian Laizhong Chinese Painting Exhibition" in Singapore in 1993, the second from the left is Qian Laizhong, the second from the right is his wife Wen Xiaomiao

In 1993 and 1994, Qian Laizhong Chinese Painting Exhibition was held in Singapore, and in 1997, Qian Laizhong Chinese Calligraphy Exhibition was held in Kyoto, Japan. 1998, Qian Laizhong Chinese Painting Exhibition was held in Paris, France at the invitation of UNESCO, and he was invited to participate in the Ink Painting Exhibition in Japan, and the Calligraphy Exhibition in Gwangju and Seoul, Korea. 1999, Qian Laizhong Chinese Calligraphy Exhibition was held in Malaysia. In 2003, he was invited to give a lecture on Chinese art at the University of Washington in the U.S.A. and gave a demonstration exhibition; in 2004, he was invited to the Sichuan Art Museum to hold an exhibition of Qian Laizhong's landscape works; in 2004, he was invited to São Paulo, Brazil, to attend the World Culture Congress and presented his paper "Back to the Origin"; in 2006, he was invited to hold an exhibition ofMr. Qian's figure paintings at the Seattle Art Museum in the U.S.A. In 2007, he was invited to hold an exhibition of Qian Laizhong's figure paintings in Chengdu, Sichuan. In 2007, he held the exhibition "Birds Going and Birds Coming - Landscape Painting" in Chengdu, Sichuan. He has been a jury member of the National Art Exhibition of Printmaking and has been a jury member of the exhibition "Love of the Western Earth" for many times.
Mr. Qian specializes in annual paintings, prints and ink paintings. His Chinese painting skills are profound, and his paintings are distinctive, bold and majestic. His representative works include prints such as "Master of the Country" and "Roving Propagandist", and Chinese paintings such as "Man of Khampa", "Daughter of the Sun", "Harvest" and "Man of Liangshan".