Zhao Shou was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong province in 1912 and graduated from the Design Department of the Guangzhou Art School in 1931. In 1933, he went to Japan for further art studies, returning to China in 1935. He was a co-founder of the China Independent Art 
Association and his paintings were included in numerous group exhibitions the organization presented throughout China in the 1930’s. In 1991 and again in 1993, Zhao Shou had one-man exhibitions held at the Guangzhou Art Gallery.
Lady in Lazy, 1940
Oil on Board
20" x 16" (50.8cm x 40.6cm)About this work
The first generation of Chinese oil painters began traveling outside of China in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Typically they either went to Europe or Japan, where they saw the work of Western oil painters experimenting with a variety of techniques and styles. They also saw, for the first time, publications about modern art and read about movements such as Fauvism or Cubism. Naturally the Chinese artists wanted to explore these new ideas themselves and the result was often comparable to their foreign counterparts. To say that the Chinese artists merely copied what they were influenced by is wrong, however. They brought to their work their own aesthetic and aspects of their own culture. The face and hairstyle of “Lady In Lazy” is Chinese. The color of the furniture on which she sits and rests her head is typically Chinese red. The objects within the room are Chinese. This is not a Western subject; it is a Chinese interpretation of a Western style of painting, and as valid a piece of ‘modern’ art as any made outside of China.
