Sun Museum will present a new exhibition “Finding Animals 20th-Century Chinese Paintings from the Yitao Collection”, from Oct 7 to Dec 22, 2022. It features nearly 40 animal-themed Chinese paintings by 10 famous modern and contemporary Chinese painters including Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong and Gao Qifeng,.

As a unique artistic language, animal images in Chinese ink paintings are endowed with different symbolic meanings. For example, deer means good luck, magpie means "happy", and chicken means "lucky". The appearance of animals in Chinese paintings must be carefully designed. Animal painting focuses on the overall layout, features and charm. Other than a single animal, it is also common to combine animals with different plants. The paintings in the exhibition feature a variety of animals, including horses, cows, cats, squirrels, eagles, chickens, etc., demonstrating the search for techniques and innovation in subject matter by 20th century Chinese ink painters.

Inspired by rural life, Qi Baishi specialized in painting of shrimps, crabs and birds. The animals he painted are lively, with a simple and innocent taste. Xu Beihong is famous for painting horses. His horses are energetic, sometimes passionate, sometimes elegant. His brushstrokes are versatile, combining the techniques of Chinese and Western paintings. Li Keran is famous for painting oxen in his own styles by giving them hard-working and docile qualities. Gao Qifeng made use of "Bumping Water and Powder" techniques to create amazingly realistic portrayal of the soft feathers of eagles.