Ma Kelu
| Ma Kelu | |
|---|---|
| Born |
8 April 1954 Shanghai, China |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Education | Beijing Culture House studio program (1972-1973) Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1989) SUNY Empire State College (1989-1990) |
| Ma Kelu | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 馬可魯 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 马可鲁 | ||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
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Ma Kelu (born April 8, 1954, Shanghai) is a Chinese painter. He first rose to prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a member of the No Name Group, a circle of largely self-taught, underground artists based in Beijing, who worked in direct contravention of the Chinese government's official sponsorship of Socialist Realism. After the crackdown against avante garde artists during the "anti-spiritual pollution" campaign in 1986, he began to show his paintings in galleries in Berlin, New York, Boston, London, and Vancouver. In 2006, Ma's work was featured in the No Name Group Retrospective in Beijing, curated by internationally renowned Chinese art historian and critic Gao Minglu.
Ma Kelu is an artist that has always stayed away from the mainstream and has never compromised to it. Due to unfortunate occurrence during Ma’s early years, he has never received formal painting classes and wasn’t even able to afford proper drawing materials. Despite the poverty, his family was very supportive and saved every penny to buy Ma the necessary tools to paint. Ma Kelu moved to Beijing with his father in 1960, and entered primary school in 1961. In 1968, he entered the Beijing 23 Secondary School, and started painting with Chan Fosheng as his teacher. In 1969, he got to know Wei Hai and Zhou Maiyou and together they discussed art. He was sent down to a village in 1970. He returned to Beijing in 1972 and worked in the Chaoyangmennei Restaurant, managed by the Food and Drinks Company of the Eastern District. In 1972-73, he met Zhang Wei, Li Shan, Shi Xixi, Zheng Ziyan, Bao Lean, Wei Hai, and Wang Aihe, and they regularly went out painting together. In 1974, he worked in the mechanical maintenance group of the Food and Drinks Company. In the same year, e met Zhao Wenliang, Yang Yushu, and Shi Zhenyu, and his painting style was influenced by Zhao and Yang. He also participated in an underground art exhibition of what was to become the Wuming (No Name) Painters Group.The exhibition was held at the home of Zahng Wei (room 305, Fusuijing Building, Beijing). He then participated in the first and second public exhibitions of the Wuming Painters Group in Beijing in 1979 and 1981. He resigned from his work to become a freelance artist in September 1984. In early 1988, he traveled to Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. He settled in New York at the end of October. In 1989, he was offered a scholarship to study art in the Painting and Sculpting School in Main. In 1989 and 1990, he studied in the Arts Department, Empire State College, State University of New York. He moved back to Beijing in 2006 and set up a studio inBeigao, the rural part of Beijing. Painting, precisely speaking, is where Ma Kelu’s interest lies. He sees himself as a “growing artist,” who holds and open-minded and studious attitude, as well as adaptive and creative abilities.
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