Qiu Ti or Qiu Di was a Chinese female modernist oil painter. She and her husband, Pang Xunqin, founded the Juelan Society, an organization with the mission of spreading the development of modern art in China during the 1930s.
Career
In 1930, Qiu Ti returned to China and began using painting techniques that she had learned from Japan. These techniques from Japan were considered post-impressionist. She blends the post-impressionist art techniques from Japan and delicate art styles from China to create her own art style. Qiu Ti’s art style was more modern, challenged conservative concepts, and free-spirited. Most of Qiu Ti’s artwork that were kept and preserved were oil paintings of landscapes or still life. In these paintings, the application of the paint is more precise than it may seem at first. The different shades of color used in the painting helps it look more realistic but simplified and light at the same time. Taking from the inspiration of post-impressionist techniques, her brushstrokes, which are short and round, are painted in a diagonal angle. The way Qiu Ti painted the middle ground in her artworks had a composition that was commonly used in traditional Chineselandscape paintings. The mixture of the Western brushstroke techniques and the Chinese landscape composition was Qiu Ti’s painting style. It was uncommon for females to be well-known for painting in the 1930’s so Qiu Ti’s mixture of Western and Chinese art was daring and unique. The still life that Qiu Ti painted seems like random common household objects put together at first glance. The items that were painted are a representation of Qiu Ti’s domestic environment and her identity as a female in modern China. Her artwork consists of her own life and how it is affected by the world’s expectation of females in China. Qiu Ti passed away in 1958.
Today
Today, Qiu Ti’s artwork are being auctioned and have been successfully auctioned over the past years. The prices of her artwork can range from $27,582 to $877,682 depending on the medium used and the size of the artwork. In 2002, one of her artworks named Wild Chrysanthemums was sold in Beijing, China in an auction, which had a bid of $877,682.
