Yan Di Hua Xuan

Author: Yan Di`
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Yan Di (1920—1979) was a native of Rongcheng County, Shandong Province. He joined the revolution in 1944 and became a member of the Communist Party of China in 1956. He once served as the Deputy Director of the Propaganda Department of the Dalian Sino-Soviet Friendship Association and the Deputy Director of the Dalian Literary and Art Troupe. He worked in the art department of Changchun Film Studio and China Film Company. In 1957, he entered the Beijing Chinese Painting Academy, specializing in landscape painting and serving as the head of the creative group. In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army, he sketched along the route of the Long March and collectively created the "Long March Scroll," collaborating with Wu Jingting on "Dai Zong Sunrise." From 1963 to 1964, he created large-scale works for the Great Hall of the People, including "Juyong Pass," "Scenery of the Beijing Suburbs," and "Penglai Fairy Tower." His works have been exhibited in Japan, France, Canada, Macau, and other places. In 1977, he created "New View of Guilin" for the Spring Festival Exhibition and "After the Rain" for the National Landscape and Flower-and-Bird Painting Exhibition. He was a member of the China Artists Association and a council member of the Chinese Painting Research Association. He published collections such as "Selected Works of Yan Di." In 1997, the Beijing Painting Academy and the Beijing Artists Association jointly organized an exhibition of Yan Di's posthumous works.
Review: Yan Di was an important painter of the contemporary sketch-style landscape painting. After the 1950s, he traveled to Guilin and Yangshuo with Li Keran for sketching and made certain contributions to the innovation of landscape painting language. In 1961, he traveled to Huangshan and sketched over a hundred sketches on Xuan paper using homemade willow charcoal, achieving a unique expressive effect. His representative works include "Spring in Juyong Pass," "Morning in Guilin," "Red Flag Canal," "New View of Guilin," "After the Rain," "Clear Day on Cangshan Mountain," "Water Town," and "Evening Mist over Smoky River." The famous writer Qu Bo once praised his works as "majestic and beautiful, simple and profound, vibrant and elegant, with the strength of steel and iron."