旅美著名画家许石丹教授,原名许以诚。1931年4月出生于中国浙江省杭州市横河桥。
许氏早年为杭州望族,现在原址立有“钱塘许氏积厚轩老屋原址纪念碑”。许府在明清时曾有“七子登科”、“五凤齐飞(入宫廷)”之兴旺史,并有“百鸟朝凤横河桥”之称。其祖上玉年公(乃殻),清时任甘肃敦煌令,留有“瑞芍轩诗集”传世,又工绘事,传诸后代。
石丹先生七岁习画,十三岁跟随名画家张正吟先生学习中国传统国画。四十年代末考入杭州国立艺专(现为中国美术学院),曾师从林风眠、潘天寿等大师。后又入学上海同济大学建筑系,攻读建筑及园林设计,毕业后进哈尔滨工业大学深造。1955年起任教于中国东南大学,长达35年之久。他现为中国美术家协会会员、中国建筑学会会员、中国园林学会会员、中国圆明园学会会员、中国古典园林设计中心顾问、美国加州艺术协会会员、美国罗格斯大学艺术博物馆特邀会员。1985年定居美国,自称“武林游子”。
石丹先生曾参与过国家重要工程、园林设计、旅游景区规划等,并周游过中国和美国的名山大川及英、法、意、东南亚等世界名胜。其作品颇具洒脱沉酣的特色,融合中西艺术优点于一炉,荟萃传统与现代手法于一体,以心造万物,追求自然的艺术观,充分表现了世界各地大自然的绚丽风光,开创了独特的个人画风,展现了中国画笔墨情趣的新意境。其作品曾多次在中国和美国展出,声誉不凡,被美国报刊誉为“画家-建筑师双料怪杰”和“中国莫奈”。曾接受过美国加州、新泽西州电视台及中国杭州明珠电视台、西湖之声电台、南京电视台的专访。其作品为北京人民大会堂等许多博物馆、美术馆、画廊、银行、大学、公司及私人所收藏。出版有《园林揽胜》等著作和《石丹画集》。他是一位在世界上享有盛誉的中国画家,又是一位把中国画推向美国主流社会和艺术鉴赏界的使者。
现经韦斯特国际设计机构领导真诚邀请,现为韦斯特国际设计机构名誉顾问,许教授通过邮件、电话、视频及现场讲学等形式向设计师传授国外的先进设计理念,指导设计师不断成长。
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Hsu Dan : An Introduction
Professor Hsu Dan, also named Hsu I-Cheng, was born in April 1931 in the city of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, to a prominent family of Hangzhou. Even today, there is a stone monument erected at the site of the ancestral home commemorating the “Hsu Family of Qian Tang.” In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Hsu Family was very influential and prosperous, with members serving in the imperial government, and some married to the imperial family. Hsu Dan’s grandfather served as the mayor of Dun Huang, Gansu Province, and was renowned for his poetry and paintings.
Hsu Dan started to learn painting at age seven. At thirteen he studied under the famous painter, Zhang Zheng-yin, establishing a solid foundation in the literati style of traditional Chinese painting. In the late forties, he enrolled in the National Art Academy of Hangzhou (now the Art Institute of China). There, he studied under such masters as Lin Feng-Mian and Pan Tian-shou. After graduation, he further studied architecture and garden design at Shanghai’s Tong Ji University. Later he pursued graduate studies at Harbin University, Liaoning Province. In 1955, he started his academic career at Southeast University of Nanjing, a career that lasted thirty-five years. He is currently a member of the Chinese Artists’ Association, Chinese Architecture Society, Academic Society of Chinese Garden and Yuan Ming Garden Society. He is also a consultant at the Center for Chinese Traditional Garden Design. In America, he is also a member of California Art Association, and a special invitational member of the Art Museum of Rutgers University. Since 1985, he has resided in the United States of America, where he started to use the pen name “Wu Lin You Zi” (Roving Son of Wu Lin) in his paintings.
Mr. Hsu has participated in major projects in engineering, garden design, and tourism location design. He has traveled widely visiting major scenic sites both in China and America, as well as in Europe and Southeast Asia. His art has the character of both freedom and solidity – the light and lively coupled with the heavy and bold. It is a melding of both Chinese and Western art, and a synthesis of both traditional and modern techniques. His artistic ideal: art should spring from the heart and aspire to the aesthetics of nature. His work strives to convey the characteristic beauty of many natural scenic areas all over the world. He has created a unique personal style, fully possessive of the tonal and brush-stroke quality of traditional Chinese Painting but expressive in a new and contemporary setting. His work has exhibited numerous times in China and America to wide critical acclaim. He has been called by the American media as a “double prodigy of painter and architect” and also “China’s Monet”. He has been interviewed by television media in California and New Jersey, as well as, Hangzhou’s Pearl TV Station and the Voice of West Lake radio station and Nanjing TV Station. His work is in the collection of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, as well as many museums, art museums, galleries, banks, universities, corporations, and also private collectors. His publications include “Guide to Chinese Gardens” and “The Paintings of Hsu Dan”. He is a Chinese painter with an international reputation.