Sun Jia-Qin

Sun Jia-Qin (1930 - 2010), who also styled himself as Ye-Yun, was born in Dalian. The youngest son of Sun Chuan-Fang, this renowned painter’s ancestral home was in Tai’an in Shandong Province, but he moved to Taiwan due to the war in 1949. He enrolled in Taiwan Provincial Normal School for advanced studies, and stayed there to teach after graduation. Sun later traveled to Brazil to study under Chang Dai-Chien, and became the last of his pupils. After residing in Brazil for many years, he returned to Taiwan to teach again. Skilled in landscape, bird-and-flower paintings, as well as Dunhuang Buddhist art, his works are found within the collections of the National Museum of History, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, and National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
==Biography==
Sun Jia-Qin’s father Sun Chuan-Fang, a warlord of the Beiyang Government, passed away when Sun Jia-Qin was four years old. His mother Zhou Pei-Xin, who came from a family of scholars, once served as the principal of Hubei Yichang Girls’ Normal School. Sun was taught painting by his mother from a young age, and began studying flower-and-bird painting along with his mother under female painter Zhou Yang Qin-Wo at the age of seven. During his adolescence, he learnt figure painting from artist Chen Lin-Zhai in Beijing, then animal painting from Chang Bin-Qing, and flower-and-bird painting from Yang Ming. At the age of seventeen, Sun was accepted into the Department of Fine Arts at Beijing’s Fu Jen University, but his academic studies were cut short due to the war.
In 1949, when Sun came to Taiwan with the Nationalist government, he did not bring proof of academic qualifications with him, and was denied interim university admission. Thus, Sun audited Jin Qin-Bo’s course on flower-and bird paintings, before being accepted into the Department of Arts at Taiwan Provincial Normal School (now known as the Department of Fine Arts at National Taiwan Normal University) in the following year, and established the “Li Shui Art Studio” with Yu Zhong-Lin and Hu Nian-Zu to provide art courses. Upon graduating, Sun Jia-Qin continued at the school as a teaching assistant and a lecturer, while studying painting under Huang Jun-Bi and Pu Xin-Yu. Through the recommendations of Tai Jin-Nong and Chang Mu-Han, Sun traveled to Brazil in 1964 to study under Chang Dai-Chien. During his three years of study at Chang’s Bade Garden (“Garden of Eight Virtues”), Sun developed a unique freehand style of flower-and-bird painting from the foundation of splash-ink landscape paintings.
Sun Jia-Qin settled in Sao Paulo, Brazil and established the Chinese Department at the University of Sao Paulo, serving as the dean and as a professor for the department. In 1973, he completed his Ph.D. in History at the University of Sao Paulo. Upon returning to Taiwan as an exchange professor in 1992, he was invited to teach as a professor in the Department of Fine Arts at National Taiwan Normal University and Department of Fine Arts at Chinese Culture University, as well as provide art-related courses in other various universities. In 2009, Sun Jia-Qin donated items and paintings by the deceased Chang Dai-Chien to the National Museum of History, where he hosted the Sun Chia-Chin in His Eighties: New Artworks exhibition in the same year. He was diagnosed with Legionnaire’s disease in 2010, and passed away in the Taipei Tri-Service General Hospital.
==Artistic Features==
Having learnt the essence of the “Three Masters Who Crossed the Sea,” Sun Jia-Qin was skilled in landscape, flower-and bird, as well as figure painting, in both elaborate-style (Gongbi) and freehand (Xieyi), thus self-proclaiming his paintings to be “mutated art.” His artworks are not simply plein air paintings, but rather a pursuit of harmony within the images. He would paint animals that had never been depicted by Chinese artists, such as white apes and black peacocks, demonstrating a breaking out of traditions. As Chang Dai-Chien once declared, “I acquired such a talent late in life, yet I believe he will be one of my greatest pupils,” recognizing Sun Jia-Qin’s talents. Former Dean of the College of Arts at Chinese Culture University Wang Shih-Yi also observed Sun’s creations as exhibiting the artistic traditions of Da Feng Tang (“Great Wind Hall”) while integrating his self-image within.
==Related Publications==
“Tracing the Past and Exploring the New: Sun Jia-Qin’s Retrospective Exhibition” (), 2000.
A Timeless Painter: Sun Chia-chin (), 2004.
Sun Chia-Chin: Tradition and Innovation (), 2006.
Sun Chia-Chin in His Eighties: New Artworks (), 2009.
The Commemorative Exhibition of Professor Sun Jia-Qin Collection (), 2011.
Category:1930 births
Category:People from Dalian
Category:Painters
Category:2010 deaths