In the art history of China, Qi Baishi is a great artist from tradition to innovation! Qi Baishi's painting style in his early years is extremely immature and has no artistic style and characteristics of his own. He is a late bloomer, and like Huang at the same time, his art is late and refined!

So talking about Qi Baishi's art refers to his original painting style of safflower and ink leaves in his later years, which can be said to be a far-reaching school. Shi Tao once said a famous artistic saying, "Pen and ink should keep pace with the times", and the greatest feature of art is its flavor of the times! Qi Baishi lived in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Whether it is a feudal society or a Republic of China society, it is a hierarchical society, an oppressive society and an unequal society. As far as art is concerned, art only reflects the aesthetic needs of the upper class, so it is far from ordinary people, because artists do not need to meet the artistic needs of ordinary people!

The same was true of Qi Baishi in his early years, but what really made Qi Baishi famous in history was his painting style after the reform in his later years, that is, his painting style in his later years. The greatest feature of his painting style in his later years is to meet the aesthetic needs of ordinary people, which is also the demand of the times, because the times have reached a modern society that advocates freedom and democracy, and the equality and freedom of social status have made ordinary people become artistic audiences. Qi Baishi is a great artist who conforms to this artistic trend. First of all, he expanded the theme of painting, which is his greatest artistic contribution. His freehand brushwork of flowers and birds is widely used. It can be said that fruits, vegetables, flowers, birds, insects and fish, as long as they fly in the sky, run on the ground, swim in the water and are familiar to ordinary people, are used in painting, which can be said to be an unprecedented artistic creation. Secondly: in the painting, Qi Baishi added red! It is a pioneering work to apply red to China's paintings! Because the ancients, especially the literati, respected black, which represents nobility and elegance and is the basic element of literati painting. Ink is transported in five colors, and the density of ink is the color element of painting. Literati painting can be said to be ink painting! Scholars oppose the use of color, especially red, because red is the favorite color of ordinary people, which is festive, but tacky and dirty.

Qi Baishi skillfully combined black with red. The use of red represents the aesthetic requirements of ordinary people, and the use of red represents the understanding and inheritance of tradition.