Huang Yongyu at Eighty

Author: Chen Lusheng / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Huang Yongyu, a native of Fenghuang County, Hunan Province, was hailed as one of "China's Three Wonders" in his youth for his outstanding woodcuts. At the age of 16, he began earning a living as a painter and woodcutter. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and vice president of the China Artists Association. Mr. Huang Yongyu is renowned for his poetry, painting, calligraphy, and literature, and is often referred to as a "genius." He created significant works such as the oil painting "Asima," the zodiac stamp "Monkey," and the landscape painting for the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall. His design for the packaging of Jiugui Liquor is widely recognized, and he has published dozens of art books and literary works. He has held exhibitions in Australia, Germany, Italy, France, and across Mainland China and Hong Kong. He was awarded Italy's highest honor, the "Commander's Medal," and is celebrated both domestically and internationally. When Mr. Huang reached his eightieth birthday, five cities—Shenzhen, Beijing, Changsha, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong—hosted the "Huang Yongyu 80th Art Exhibition," showcasing many of his monumental masterpieces created after 1999. This book takes the five art exhibitions of Huang Yongyu as its main thread, using lively visuals to comprehensively document the master's artistic journey over the year, guiding readers into his rich artistic world. The appendix includes over 50 works, all rare masterpieces.
For an artist, eighty years is a special milestone. It is common for them to hold an exhibition to commemorate and reflect on their career. However, Mr. Huang opposed retrospective exhibitions. He believed that looking back would make one feel as though their artistic life had ended. Therefore, the "80th Art Exhibition" he meticulously prepared only featured works created in recent years. Determining the timing was challenging, especially for the Hong Kong Art Museum. After the confirmation of the opening date by the Director Wang Xiaoming of the Shenzhen Art Museum, the first poster was created, featuring a portrait of Mr. Huang taken by the renowned photographer Pang Xiaowei, designed by me. Subsequently, nearly 10 different posters were designed by various teams, reflecting Mr. Huang's characteristic of having many helpers. I was fully responsible for coordinating and organizing the special exhibition in Shenzhen. In December 2003, the Shenzhen Art Museum called to ask about the exhibition's preface. I consulted Mr. Huang, and he said, "I don't care. You write it." It was that simple, as he often was. Thus, I wrote the following preface, which was printed in the exhibition catalog.
A place called Frenze in Italian, now known as "Florence," has a poetic pen name "Peking," which is the translation of the poet Xu Zhimo. Although people in the first half of the 20th century called it this, it has not been forgotten or abandoned by modern people, as it carries the poetic spirit bestowed upon it by Xu Zhimo. Additionally, because the painter Huang Yongyu used his memories of life in Peking and his brushwork to awaken people's nostalgia for the past, it remains cherished. In both Latin and Italian, the name Peking means "City of Flowers," and it is marked by the symbol of a lily. In 1991, Mr. Huang Yongyu traveled and lived along the Seine River to Peking. Wherever he went, he left records of himself standing with his easel, which was his sketching and art related to his life. One day, a stranger, after asking for permission, took several photos of Mr. Huang while he was painting on the street. A few days later, his painting was featured in a local newspaper in Peking, accompanied by a caption: "Hmm, sitting for several hours at the busy intersection of Ponte Vecchio and Via de' Ginori requires courage. This painter, with the patience typical of an Easterner, ignores the cars passing by. Day after day, the scenery of Fiesole Mountain as seen from Ponte Vecchio appears on his canvas." Mr. Huang's journey to Peking was filled with creative desire, with a plan before he left and arrangements for each day. He said, "I can't think of anything more interesting than painting. Not painting would be a waste of time." Thus, he returned with abundant, having experienced the fascinating life worth reading.
Poet Xu Zhimo wrote in "Talks at a Mountain Villa in Peking," "Can’t we find the roots of great, profound, inspiring, clear, beautiful thoughts in the whispers of the wind, the clouds, the undulations of mountains and land, the colors and scents of flowers and grass?" Therefore, he believed that "nature is the greatest book," and that "once you understand this book, you will not feel lonely in the world, nor poor, nor troubled, nor discouraged, nor weak, nor lost." Mr. Huang Yongyu read this book of Peking through art, presenting us with a vivid glimpse into some of his thought sources. These thoughts were either great, profound, inspiring, clear, or beautiful.
In the early 20th century, some young Chinese traveled to Europe to study sketching and color. Over time, the differences and similarities between Eastern and Western art, as well as their absorption and rejection, evolved into the artistic backdrop of an era. Xu Zhimo said, "The Alps and the Five Old Peaks, Sicily and Putuo Mountain, the Rhine and the Yangtze, Lake Geneva and West Lake, Jian Orchid and Qionghua Flower, the reeds of Xixi in Hangzhou and the red tide of the sunset in Venice, orioles and nightingales—let alone the yellow wheat, purple wisteria, and green grass all growing together on the land and swaying in the breeze—they use the same symbols, and their meanings are always clear." Among these, the consistency of symbols and the clarity of meaning, aside from other possible factors, is art. Mr. Huang Yongyu's paintings serve as proof.
For an artist, the absorption and rejection that remain only in words and ink are unimportant. What matters is the self expressed in their art, neither absorbing nor rejecting. Like Mr. Huang Yongyu and his generation of painters influenced by the West, the Renaissance, Michelangelo, David, and the eternal smile of Mona Lisa, the wife of a Florentine merchant, were sacred in their hearts. Thus, Peking became a symbol for a region. Therefore, the paintings in this exhibition, while depicting Peking, also include works from other countries in Europe, but there is no exhibition titled "Huang Yongyu's Europe."
December 2003, Beijing