Ai Xuan is one of China's significant post-Cultural Revolution painters, and is best known for his realist portraits of Tibetan nomads. Ai is the son of well-known political poet Ai Qing, and the half-brother of China's most famous dissident artist Ai Weiwei. He was born under the rule of Mao, and as a young man went on to study at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

At the end of China's Cultural Revolution Ai enlisted in the Peoples Liberation Army and was sent Sichuan, where he would spend the next ten years. In Sichuan he first saw Tibetan nomads, who would inspire him and become the primary subject matter of his portraits.

In 1981 Ai won the silver medal at the Second National Exhibition of Young Artists in Chi...