Jia Youfu

Jia Youfu was born in 1942 in Suning County, Hebei Province, China. He enrolled at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1960, studying traditional landscape painting under Li Keran and Li Kuchan, and graduated in 1965. On graduating he was first assigned to teach stage design at the Central Academy of Drama. In 1977 he transferred back to CAFA, where he went on to become a professor of traditional landscape painting and a doctoral tutor, roles he is still described as holding in recent biographical sources.

He is a member of the Chinese Artists' Association, and in 1992 and again in 1996 the State Council of the People's Republic of China recognized him with titles honoring his contributions as an arts and culture expert. His best known works are large scale ink landscapes of the Taihang Mountains of North China. As of the most recent available sources in 2026, he continues to be described in the present tense by galleries, encyclopedias, and auction houses, and no obituary, memorial notice, or death date has been documented for him.

No verbatim, attributable quotations from named critics writing in major art publications could be confirmed for this profile. What can be documented is a pattern of institutional and state recognition: a bronze medal at the Sixth National Painting Exhibition in 1984, a Special Award at the Beijing International Chinese Painting Exhibition in 1988, and two honorific titles from the State Council of the People's Republic of China in 1992 and 1996. His exhibition history runs from a 1986 solo show at the CAFA Gallery in Beijing through museum solo shows in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, and Singapore in the early 1990s, group inclusion in the 1995 Gwangju Biennale, and a second solo exhibition at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing in 1999. Taken together, this record points to sustained institutional standing within Chinese academic ink painting rather than a market driven critical narrative.

Jia Youfu's work has circulated through Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams, and China Guardian, but public auction data on him remains limited, and confirmed realized prices are difficult to establish from public sources. The best documented data point is a presale estimate of USD 120,000 to 180,000 for the painting Sunshine after the Rain at Bonhams New York on 11 September 2017, in the house's 20th Century Chinese Painting and Calligraphy sale. No confirmed realized price for that lot, and no other confirmed sale price for the artist, could be located in available sources as of 2026.

There is no documented, current exclusive gallery representing the artist or an estate on his behalf. The New York dealer M. Sutherland Fine Arts organized solo exhibitions of his paintings in 2002 and 2004, and White Space Art Asia in Singapore currently maintains a profile page presenting and offering his work, but neither relationship is confirmed as an ongoing exclusive representation arrangement.

There is no catalogue raisonne for Jia Youfu, and public auction data is thin enough that no confirmed realized sale price could be verified; the clearest documented data point is a presale estimate of USD 120,000 to 180,000 for Sunshine after the Rain at Bonhams New York in 2017. Buyers should also be careful with naming: the artist appears under Jia Youfu, JIA YOUFU, Jia You Fu, and the Chinese characters 贾又福 across different catalogues and gallery pages, all referring to the same painter. Given the absence of a confirmed exclusive gallery or estate representative and the limited volume of public sales, provenance should be verified directly through the auction house of consignment or through CAFA affiliated documentation rather than assumed from any single dealer relationship.