Lu Jian Jun
In Lu Jian Jun, China has produced an artist of imagination, a man with a distinctive and unquestionable mastery of his materials, and a palpable insight into the human condition. Lu was born in 1960 in mainland China and from an early age demonstrated an uncanny ability to draw and paint. This eventually led to a degree at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and finally a position as a professor at Shandong Academy of Painting. The level of technical training in traditional media and materials he received in China would have been virtually inaccessible (or simply impossible) in the West. The discipline, focus and intensity of such training is often compared to late 19th century Russian academicism. Professor Lu, for example, has an impressive familiarity with Russian academic figures such as Ilya Repin and his contemporaries.
Professor Lu's phenomenal paintings are of the highest of quality, unmistakable masterpieces that stand alone in today's world of representational art. They are very rare and sought-after around the world.
His awards in China and internationally include the Outstanding Award for Graduation Work from China Central Academy, the Japanese Art Association Award, the National Outstanding Award in Oil Painting (China), and the China National Art Exhibition Award of Excellence. His works are in the China National Museum and the Museum of Japan, and have been exhibited in Los Angeles, the Nagasaki Prefectural Museum, and the Fukuoka Art Museum.
Lu’s painting have found their way into some of America's most significant private collections. Reproductions of his artwork have been published in newspapers and periodicals such as Chinese Oil Painting, Fine Arts, People's Daily, China Daily, Beijing Evening News, American Overseas Chinese Daily, Art News, and many others.
The American nineteenth century artists James MacNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent also share a kinship with Lu. Certainly the women, such as the reclining figure in ANTIQUE DRESSING TABLE, reveal a sense of contemplation both relaxed and formal. Bold and provocative in her positioning JAPANESE PRINCESS is as timeless as Sargent's Madame X. Lu surpasses past masters with his great sensitivity in the placement and orientation of hands, feet and faces as echoed in paintings like CHINA QUEEN. This composition's highly textural use of palette knives makes the outskirts of this large canvas an abstract masterpiece, an achievement not dissimilar to Whistler's large Nocturnes or his At the Piano. The depth and complexity of emotion in these uncluttered masterpieces of the past and present are tremendously inviting to the imagination.
Zantman Art Galleries is proud to present the works of this master.
Chinese Master Painter