Yanyong Ding Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, Calligrapher

(b. Guangdong Province, China, 1902; d. Hong Kong, 1978). Chinese painter and calligrapher. Yanyong Ding was born in China in 1902. He left in 1919 to study painting at the Tokyo College of Fine Arts. While in Japan, he developed an admiration for a western style of painting. Yanyong was influenced by Henri Matisse and Fauvist movement of the early 1900’s; he integrated western expressionism into a traditional Chinese style. He also found inspiration from seventeenth century Chinese artists Bada Shanren and Shi Tao. His style evolved into a modern interpretation of traditional Chinese techniques and subjects. Yanyong returned to China in 1925, where he promoted modern art and art education. Early in his career he worked in oil paints; producing works that more closely aligned to the Fauvists. His later paintings, however, are painted almost solely in guohua (traditional Chinese painting media). In 1949, he moved to Hong Kong where he became active as a teacher and more eccentric with his use of guohua. He used this traditional ink medium while depicting modern and non-traditional subjects. In 1956, he founded an art course at the New Asia College (the predecessor of the Department of Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong). He stayed on as a professor at the New Asia College until his death in 1978.