BORN IN 1927 IN A SMALL TOWN IN THE NORTHEAST OF CHINA, Mr. Yongkai Liu began taking fine art courses when he was a teenager. He studied Chinese traditional painting styles as well as western classic painting skills. These experiences culminated in Liu’s decision to pursue art as a career. In 1949, he left his hometown for Beijing, the capital city of China, to compete with hundreds of young fine artists in a national admission exam for the Central Academy of Fine Art of China, the top academy for fine art, where he was successfully admitted. During his study in the academy, Chancellor Mr. Xu Beihong, an internationally renowned Chinese artist, instructed him in artistic creation and in European classic painting. At the age of 26, Mr. Liu graduated from the academy, and was retained as a Fine Art Editor of the People’s Fine Art Publishing House of China. In 1965, he was elected to be a member of the China Fine Artists Association.
Based on his nearly sixty years of figure painting experience, Yongkai Liu has created landscape paintings that depict the integration of nature and the human as well as the transient effects of light and color with an emphasis on the harmony of man and nature. In his landscape paintings, figures are not mere decoration of the scene, but are the spirit that gives the landscape life. His painting is never a mirror image of the objects, but capture the brightest and the most moving moment of the object in his heart. The characteristics of his works can be summarized as seeking profound effect not overburdened with tedious details, vigorously executing painting skills without lacking refinement, presenting free-style creation but not deviating from the theme of the natural object.
In the last 60 years, he has created more than four thousand drawings and paintings. The majority of his artistic paintings focus on nature and the rural life of China.
His paintings “Bank of Stone Forest Lake” and “Dai Village in South-west China” were exhibited at the China Fine Art Exhibition held in Tokyo, Japan in 1980, and were included in the Art Album of the exhibition. In 1982, his figure paintings and drawings were exhibited at the China Original Paintings and Drawings Exhibitions held in Italy and Hongkong. In 1991, a painting collection titled “China Legends in History,” in which Mr. Liu was a major contributor, won the “Third Prize of the China Outstanding Publications Award,” and was selected to be in the “Basic Reading” book-list for children by the Ministry of Education of Singapore. His painting titled “Thai Village” was selected and exhibited in the National Paintings and Calligraphy Exhibition of China, 1991. In 1993, Mr. Liu was elected to be a member of the most achieved fine artists of China group and went to Japan to paint large-scale wall paintings of the “Story of Xuan Zhuang”, an eminent monk of the Tang dynasty. In January 1995, he was invited and participated a fine art show in Los Angeles, the United States. In August 2002, his painting “Music from Ping Lake” was exhibited at the “6th China-Korea International Paintings and Calligraphy Exhibition” co-organized by China and Korea, and won the “First Prize” award. In 2003, his painting titled “Antum of Ping Lake” was exhibited at “the China and Taiwan Paintings and Calligraphy Exhibition,” and won the “First Prize” award.
As a nationally-recognized artist, Mr. Yongkai Liu was invited to Japan to paint a high-profile wall painting. His wall painting in Japan received an extremely favorable resonance. In recognition of his extraordinary artistic achievements, Mr. Liu was awarded the title of the “Prominent Fine Artists and Calligraphers of the World,” selected and evaluated by fine art organizations from sixteen countries. Yongkai Liu is one of the prominent artists featured in Who’s Who: China Fine Artists, Dictionary of Contemporary Fine Artists and Calligraphers in the World, and the China Prominent Fine Artists and Art Works Gala.