衛祖蔭  

Biography

Born in 1937, a native of Huixian County, Henan Province, he graduated from Wu Zuoren Painting Studio of the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He is member of Chinese Artists’ Association, councilor of Beijing Painting and Calligraphy Research Society, professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and honorary professor of the Orient Painting and Calligraphy Society of USA. 

In 1955 he took part in the International Painting Exhibition held in Yugoslavia and was awarded the first prize for collective. Since 1967 he has many times taken part in the large-scale Exhibitions both at home and abroad, and his many works of painting were collected and published. He painted portraits for some very important persons in the world, such as Prince Norodom Sihanouk of the United Kingdom of Kampuchea, President of Kenya and King of Oman. He also respectively took part in artwork in five foreign embassies in China. In 1982 he held the joint oil painting exhibition with Shao Jingkun in Beijing. His solo show went public at Paris International Art Center in December 1994. In 1995 his work “Evening Lights in Berlin” was selected into the Exhibition of Chinese Landscape Oil Paintings. The oil painting “Wangfujing’s Present and Past” won the third prize at the Comprehensive Art Exhibition of China 1995 Cultural Art Festival. 

His works were on display many times at national art work exhibitions and awarded prizes. Some works were published in national publications, and some were collected by art galleries at home.  

Since 1991 his works included genre painting and flower-plant painting have been frequently shown in various exhibitions at home and abroad. Apart from his solid foundation of painting, he has also painted from life over a long period of time. He has a unique insight and aesthetic appreciation for scenery of nature, thereby forming a special style of his own.