LI KUCHAN (1898-1983)

LOTUS AND BAMBOO



hanging scroll; ink and paper, signed Ku Chan and with one seal

Li Kuchan, a native of Shandong Province, was a guohua painter who entered the Beijing Academy of Art in 1922 to study Western art. In 1923 he began painting birds and flowers under the tutelage of Qi Baishi, graduating in 1925. He became professor of Chinese art at the Hangzhou Academy of Art in 1930; moved to Beijing to join Xu Beihong in 1946 and after 1949 became professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.