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Jin Shangyi

Jin entered Peking State Art College at the age of 15 in 1949. The college was renamed Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1950 and he received professional training and guidance by several painting masters. In 1955, Jin went to former Soviet Union to continue his study of oil painting and graduated with excellent performance. As new China's first generation of oil painters, Jin is known for his works of revolutionary and history subjects. His masterpieces such as "Ascending Peak Mushitago", "Seeing Off", "Our Friends are All Over the World", "The December Meeting" and "The Long March" demonstrate his artistic talents and ambition to reflect realities with painting.

Jin's artistic accomplishments are reflected by his vast number of portraits. "I use portrait as a means to represent my ideal and pursuit of realistic life," explained Jin. Over his decades of artistic career, Jin has depicted a series of representative figures in Chinese realities. The images of ordinary workers he has created are so vivid that they can echo visitors' feelings. He had tried to purify people's minds by depicting ideal life.

Jin creates, but not depicts figures in his portrait works, which shows a different artistic pursuit from his peers. While most Chinese oil painters followed the styles of former Soviet Union, he blazed a new road by interpreting essential natures of European oil painting from the perspective of design language. Meanwhile, he consciously explored spiritual value of his portraits from classic experiences. Such understanding surpassed the limit of the time and helped him to create extraordinary works.

Since China reopened its door to the world in the late 1970s, Jin has visited numerous museums in Europe and North America and studied origin and development of European oil painting, particularly classic oil works since the Renaissance. He learned the technical nature of Western bright-and-dark design system as well as cultural essence of Western oil art. As a result, he rebuilt his artistic goals both in form and in spiritual value.