孫雲生   Sun, Yun-Sheng   1918~2000

Yun-Sheng Sun, whose domicile of origin was Ninghe county, Hebei province, was born in Peking, China, in 1918. He sat at the feet of several calligraphy and painting masters, including Yi-Xuan Shao, Pei-Heng Hu, Xue-Tao Wang and Zhong-Fu Qin, thus laying a solid foundation for his calligraphy and painting career. Sun followed traditions but was not stubbornly conservative. He succeeded in bridging the gap between traditional art and modern art to display both originality and ingenuity. He graduated from the Department of Art Education, Huabei Academy in 1938, and while studying Sun became a disciple of Da-Qian Zhang in 1936 and, thereafter, he was deeply influenced by his master. Yun-Sheng Sun’s works are exquisite and elegant, showing his proficiency in the paintings of landscapes, figures, Flowers-and-Birds, and insects-and-plants. While collating the old manual scripts of Da-Qian Zhang, Sun took the opportunity to copy the ancient paintings and Dunhuang fresco copies collected by Zhang. He spent three years imitating and depicting these masterpieces, which in turn contributed to the clean lines and gorgeous colors of his figure paintings. They are not inferior in any respect to the mature works of the Tang and Song Dynasties. Splash-ink is the most distinctive feature of Sun’s landscape paintings. He used the traditional technique of relief shading to enhance the blue of the sky, and the technique of splashing to demonstrate the green of the grass. His Flowers-and-Birds paintings manage to deliver this freshness and vividness that resemble works of the Gods. Apart from his art achievements, Sun was sincere and contented with his peaceful life, rarely entering into any disputes with others and loving his students as family members. Both the way he treated others and the way he conducted himself in society made him a highly respected figure.