Lot Essay
Qu Leilei was born into a family of intellectuals in Northern China. He received his training in traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy from master Tan Wucun in Beijing during the years 1958-64. During the Cultural Revolution he was sent down to the countryside and subsequently worked as a peasant, barefoot doctor, soldier, worker and artist. His thorough education in classial Chinese painting during his childhood years enabled him to continue painting even during those years, and develop his work into a more contemporary style. In 1974, he started studying Western drawing and painting, followed in 1977 by a year of anatomical studies at the Beijing Medical University. In 1979 he became one of the founding and key members of the notorious Star Star movement, a Beijing based group of artists who fiercely campaigned and fought for greater freedom of expression within the arts. Before Qu Leilei moved to England in 1986, he taught at the Beijing Fine Art School and the British-Chinese Brush Painting Society. He was also active as an Art Director for the China Central TV, where he won the National Award, First Prize, for his film The Hard Time.
In London he studied painting and drawing at the Central School of Art and Design, and taught Chinese Art at the Mary Ward Centre, The Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ruskin School of Fine Art in Oxford and SOAS/Sotheby's Education Institute. His works have been widely exhibited in both joint exhibitions and One-man shows in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, France, Norway, Germany and England.
In London he studied painting and drawing at the Central School of Art and Design, and taught Chinese Art at the Mary Ward Centre, The Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ruskin School of Fine Art in Oxford and SOAS/Sotheby's Education Institute. His works have been widely exhibited in both joint exhibitions and One-man shows in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, France, Norway, Germany and England.