Shi Lu

Shi Lu (simplified Chinese: 石鲁; traditional Chinese: 石魯; pinyin: Shí Lǔ; December 13, 1919– August 25, 1982), born Feng Yaheng (simplified Chinese: 冯亚珩; traditional Chinese: 馮亞珩; pinyin: Féng Yàhéng), was a Chinese painter, wood block printer, poet and calligrapher. He based his pseudonym on two artists who greatly influenced him, the landscape painter Shitao and writer Lu Xun.^[1] He is the father of Chinese traditional painting artist Shi Guo.^[2]

Shi Lu came from a wealthy land owning family in Renshou County, Sichuan Province. A student of the Chinese traditional painting style guohua, he studied at Dongfang Art College and West China Union University in Chengdu (1934-1940).^[3] He joined the Chinese Communist Party and in 1949 at the first national assembly was elected and executive member of the China Artists Association.^{[citation needed]}

In 1955, Shi Lu travelled to India to supervise the overall art design of a Chinese pavilion at an international expo. In 1956, he attended the Asian-African National Art Exhibition in Egypt. During these travels, he made many sketches of the people he observed developing his technique of Western drawing and Chinese brushwork.^{[citation needed]}

In 1959, he was commissioned to produce a large scale painting to be displayed in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the forming of the People's Republic of China.^[4]

• Hawkins, Shelley Drake (2010), "Summoning Confucius: Inside Shi Lu's Imagination", in King, Richard; Zheng, Sheng Tian; Watson, Scott (eds.), Art in Turmoil: The Chinese Cultural Revolution, 1966-76, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, pp. 58–90, ISBN 9789888028641
• Jia, Jia (2005). "The Reconstruction of a Political Icon: Shi Lu's Painting Fighting in Northern Shaanxi". Qualitative Inquiry. 11 (4): 535–548. doi:10.1177/1077800405276766. S2CID 145478176.
• Andrews, Julia Frances (1994). Painters and Politics in the People's Republic of China, 1949-1979. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520079817.