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Zhong Kui the demon queller
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Description
Li Keran, from Jiangsu province, studied at the National Academy of Art in Hangzhou. In 1947, he went to Beijing and spent 10 years as a pupil of Qi Baishi and Huang Binhong, the great masters of traditional painting. He himself taught at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing where the Czech, ‘Comrade Bei Yajie’, named in the inscription as the recipient of the painting, was a student.
In this painting, the Demon Queller looks back at a demon boy hiding in a tree with a big smile on his face, as if they were playing ‘peek-a-boo’. Zhong Kui playing with demons is a popular subject of literati paintings in the Qing period. The demon is probably a metaphor of ‘old words’ mentioned in the artist’s seal on the painting, which reads ‘old words must be discarded’.
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Details
- Associated place
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Asia › China › Hebei province › Beijing (place of creation)
- Date
- probably 1957
- Artist/maker
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Li Keran (1907 - 1989) (artist)
- Associated people
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Bei Yajie (active c. 1954 - 1957) (recipient)
- Material and technique
- ink and colour on paper
- Dimensions
- 71.12 x 35.56 cm (height x width)
- Material index
- Technique index
- Object type index
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Purchased, 1981.
- Accession no.
- EA1981.45
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Further reading
Vainker, Shelagh, Chinese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2000), no. 74 on p. 92, illus. p. 93 fig. 74
Glossary
Zhong Kui
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Zhong Kui
Zhong Kui, or Shōki in Japanese, is a figure from Chinese folklore who appeared to the ailing 8th century Chinese Emperor Xuanzong in a dream and dispatched the demons that were haunting him. Shōki promised the Emperor that he would rid the world of demons.
Past Exhibition
see (1)
Location
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- currently in research collection
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
Publications online
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Chinese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Li Keran was born in Xuzhou in Jiangsu province. He attended art school in Shanghai at the age of fifteen, graduating in 1925, and later studied at the National Academy of Art in Hangzhou where his courses included sketching and oil painting. He spent somet time in Chongqing, Sichuan, during the Sino-Japanese War and in 1947 went to Beijing, where he spent ten years as a pupil of Qi Baishi (q.v.); he was also taught by Huang Binhong (q.v.). He himself taught at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He had a successful career as an artist until the Cultural Revolution, and painted again from the late seventies until his death a decade later.
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