Qiu Ti’s Contributions to Juelanshe and the Intersection of Modernist Ideology, Public Receptivity, and Personal Identity for a Woman Oil Painter in Early Twentieth-Century China

Abstract

Despite her pioneering actions as one of the first female oil painters in China, Qiu Ti (1906-1958) remains on the periphery of China's modernist art movement. This dissertation repositions her to the center of a lively early twentieth-century dialogue about new roles for women in China's art world. Focusing on her involvement with the influential art group Juelanshe (often translated Storm Society), this study reassess her professional identity and the impact her membership had on the 1930s Shanghai art community. Examining contemporary magazines, essays on modernist art theories, art group manifestos, and the author's own interviews with the artist's children, this dissertation sheds new light on Qiu Ti's contributions. It demonstrates that, though her career ended early, the daring Qiu Ti embraced new styles and genres of modernist art with the same adventurous spirit as her male colleagues.