BIOGRAPHY
Hou Beiren
Born in 1917 in Liaoning, China and now entering his second century, Hou Beiren is one of California’s greatest contemporary Chinese painters – and he has firmly held that position for the past sixty years since his 1956 arrival from Hong Kong. Hou’s paintings reflect the radical ‘splashed ink and color’ style, and his late work represents the on-going exploration of this approach that often borders on abstraction. Well-versed in Chinese classics and literature, also a celebrated poet and writer, Hou is the embodiment of a contemporary literati artist.
Hou’s works have been exhibited and collected in the US and internationally, including the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, de Young Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, National Art Museum of China, Nanjing Museum, Zhejiang Art Museum, and Austria Museum of Modern Art. In China, two museums bear his name and feature major collections of his work - Hou Beiren Art Museum in Kunshan, and the Hou Beiren & Zhang Yunqin Gallery in Liaoning Museum.
