Fan Tchunpi

Fan Tchunpi or Fang Junbi (Chinese: 方君璧; pinyin: Fāng Jūnbì; 1898–1986), was a Chinese artist known for her brush-and-ink paintings in the traditional guóhuà style. Trained in Western painting techniques while living in France, her work is known for its combination of European and Chinese formal elements. Called "one of the most important and prolific Chinese artists of the modern era,"[1] her work has been the subject of retrospective exhibitions at the Hood Museum of Art, the Musée Cernuschi, and the Fung Ping Shan Museum.

In this Chinese name, the family name is Fang (Fan).

Background

Born in Fuzhou, Fan was the eleventh child of a wealthy merchant family. In 1912, she moved to France with her older sister Junying and sister-in-law Zeng Xing. From 1917 Fan studied art at the Académie Julian in Paris and then at the École des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, where she graduated in 1920. Upon her return to China, she became closely associated with the Lingnan School of traditional Chinese painters based in Shanghai. Forced into exile with the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Fan fled to Paris and eventually moved to Boston in 1957, returning to China only once in 1972.[2] She finally moved to Geneva in 1983, where she lived until her death.

Career

While studying in France, Fan became the first Chinese female student to enter the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts exhibition. She was also the first Chinese female artist to be included in the annual Salon Société des Artistes Françaises.[3] Fan published books in China on her oil painting, including a 1938 volume with a foreword by Cai Yuanpei, former Chinese Minister of Education and a classical scholar. She met Qi Baishi in 1943 and worked in close contact with him until leaving China, producing a series of solo exhibitions from 1944 to 1949.[4]

Work

Fan's early works reflect the Impressionist style of French artists like Paul-Albert Besnard, with whom she studied in 1926.[4] After returning to China, Fan became one of several 20th-century Chinese artists who sought to revitalize the tradition of Chinese brush-and-ink painting as a self-conscious expression of national identity. Her work from this period is particularly influenced by the founders of the Lingnan School, Gao Jianfu (1879–1951) and his brother Gao Qifeng (1889–1935), who combined Western pictorial devices such as single-point perspective and atmospheric light with highly naturalistic and patriotic scenes of modern-day life in China.[2]

References
  1. "Between Tradition and Modernity | Hood Museum". hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-28.
  2. "Hood Museum of Art Presents the Work of Fan Tchunpi". Dartmouth College. Retrieved 2017-03-28.
  3. "Fang Junbi (1898-1986)". Wang Jingwei. Retrieved 2017-03-28.
  4. Lee, Lily Xiao Hong (2003-01-01). 中國婦女傳記詞典: The Twentieth Century, 1912-2000. M.E. Sharpe. p. 162. ISBN 9780765607980.

Further reading
  • Bobot, Marie-Thérèse. Fan Tchun-Pi : artiste chinoise contemporaine : soixante tableaux ou soixante ans de peinture : Musée Cernuschi, 21 janvier-11 mars 1984, Ville de Paris.
  • A Retrospective Exhibition of the Works of Fan Tchun-pi. Hong Kong: Fung Ping Shan Museum, 1978.
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