Li Keran  李可染

 

 2011 Rank:10     Auction Revenue:US$104.95 million

2010 Rank:11     Auction Revenue:US$86.39 million

Li Keran(1907-1989), born Li Yongshun in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, was a renowned contemporary Chinese artist and calligrapher. Li excelled at landscapes, human figures and cattle. He began to learn the traditional Chinese landscape painting at age 13.

In 1923, he entered the Shanghai Art College, where he was greatly inspired by Chinese scholar Kang Youwei's lectures on learning from both the Eastern and Western arts. He then started to bring the Western artistic techniques such as chiaroscuro into his creation, and thus formed his unique personal style. His "black paintings" feature grand and imposing Chinese scenery executed in the predominant color of black. His works have been sought after by numerous collectors at home and abroad.

 Li's ink painting "Long March (1959)"(96cm × 146.5cm) fetched a record price of 107.5 million yuan(US$17 million) at the Guardian Auction in Beijing in Nov. 2010, while his masterpiece "Shaoshan" (71cm ×107cm) was sold at 68.43 million yuan(US$10.9 million) at an auction house in Nanjing in January this year, the second best for him so far.