survey_10 — Masters of Monumental Painting

1. Yuan Yunsheng — 袁运生 (1937–2026, Nantong (Jiangsu))

Graduated from: Central Academy of Fine Arts (Dong Xiwen's studio), 1962

The author of the most notorious scandal in Chinese monumental painting: "The Water-Splashing Festival — Ode to Life" at Beijing Airport (1979), with its nude figure.

• "The Water-Splashing Festival — Ode to Life" (泼水节——生命的赞歌, 1979)— a nude figure that provoked a public controversy and was covered over with cloth.
• “Man and His World” (1980s) — painting and graphic work about the freedom of the body.
• Late murals — large compositions on historical and mythological subjects.

2. Hou Yimin [侯一民] (1930–2023, Hebei)

Graduated from: Beiping State Art School (now Central Academy of Fine Arts), 1946

A classic of official monumental painting and head of the mural painting department (壁画) at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

• Ensembles of the 1970s–1980s — large compositions for airports, railway stations and government buildings.
• “Blood Ties” and historical canvases — painting about revolution and the people.
• Teaching — creating a system for training mural painters (壁画) in China.

3. Cheng Li [程犁] (b. 1941, Wuhan)

Graduated from: Hubei Academy of Arts, 1965

A painter and muralist who, together with Tang Xiaohe, created the canonical mural style of the Hubei school.

• “Chu Music” / “Songs of Chu” (1980s) — large panels for public spaces.
• Easel painting of the 1960s–70s — “The Red List”, “Growing Up in the Storm”.
• Late murals — work with decorative and mythological subjects.

4. Li Huaji [李化吉] (1931–2022, Beijing)

Graduated from: Central Academy of Fine Arts, 1959

Founder of the mural painting department (壁画) at the Central Academy of Fine Arts: he joined folk art to monumental composition.

• “White Night” / compositions of the 1970s–80s — murals for public buildings.
• “The Legend of the Yellow Emperor” — mythological panels.
• Pedagogical legacy — a system for training monumental painters.

5. Zhou Lingzhao [周令钊] (1919–2023, Pingjiang, Hunan)

Graduated from: Wuchang Art School, 1936

One of the authors of monumental murals and of state design: posters, emblems and large compositions of the 1950s.

• “National Unity” / murals of the 1950s — large compositions for public buildings.
• Portrait of Mao (1950) — the canonical version that hung on Tiananmen.
• State design — banknotes, emblems, festive decorations.

6. Du Dakai [杜大恺] (b. 1943, Yexian, Henan)

Graduated from: Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, 1980

A muralist and painter who worked as an assistant to Yuan Yunfu and Zhu Dan and later produced his own murals and easel series.

• Contribution to “Song of the Forest” (森林之歌) — assistant in creating the mural.
• His own panels of the 1980s–1990s — decorative compositions for public buildings.
• Easel painting and graphic work — landscape and human figures within a decorative system.