LI KAI

• LI KAI is a Chinese modern painter known primarily for his oil paintings of the Forbidden City and its historic architecture. He studied at the High School Affiliated with the Central Academy of Fine Arts and, from 1974, worked in the restoration of artworks at the Forbidden City, remaining there until the early 1980s. This prolonged engagement with the imperial complex became fundamental to his artistic practice, leading him to repeatedly explore its gates and palace architecture as subjects through which the passage of time could be conveyed. His paintings combine a restrained, weighty palette with a realist approach, emphasizing architectural surfaces, subtle variations of light and shadow, and the quiet atmosphere of historic spaces. His sustained treatment of the Forbidden City occupies a distinctive place within the representation of historical landscapes in modern Chinese oil painting.