Zong Qi Xiang
BORN: 1917
HOMETOWN: NANJING, JIANGSU PROVINCE, CHINA
Zong Qi Xiang (b. 1917-1999) was born in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. He was poor when young, however he thrived in his later life through hard work and self-study. He joined the Chinese Fine Arts Association in 1935.
In 1937, when working as a student, his piece, “Chinese Landscape”, was selected by the Ministry of Education’s second national art exhibition, and in 1939, he was admitted to the Department of Art of Central University. After graduating in 1944, Xiang was hired as an assistant researcher at China Fine Art College in Chongqing. In 1946, he went on to work with Xu Beihong, and served as a lecturer at the National Beiping College of Art, a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, a director of the Watercolor Teaching and Research Office, and a member of the Chinese Artists Association.
Zong has an immaculate hand at portraiture, landscapes, paintings of fauna and birds, with a focus on night time scenes. He was one of the representative figures of the reformists of Chinese painting in the 20th century and was one of the first painters to succeed in transforming the landscape paintings of the country with Western painting, and he made outstanding contributions to the teaching of landscape and watercolor in New China.
Zong's work has been offered at auction houses multiple times, including Christies with realized prices ranging from $532 USD to $182,122 USD, depending on the size and medium of the artwork. Since 2006 the record price for this artist at auction is $182,122 USD for The Morning of Southeast, sold at China Guardian Auctions, Beijing in 2018.In MutualArt’s artist press archive, Zong is featured in Li Dajun: How Can the Surge in Online Auctions Drive Changes in the Art Market?, a piece from CAFA Art Info in April 2021. The artist died in 1999.