On the eve of the Hong Kong Art Week, many art exhibitions were held in neighboring Shenzhen. On March 25, the Shenzhen Art Museum (New Museum) opened the exhibition "Youhan and Yu Youhan: Yu Youhan's Early Experience and Late Style", which is the first large-scale retrospective exhibition of Shanghai artist Yu Youhan (1943-2023) since his death. The Paper saw that the exhibition presented his creative career spanning more than half a century with more than 100 works and rich documentary materials, some of which were made public for the first time.
Through the dialogue between Yu Youhan’s early practice and his late works, the exhibition not only presents his artistic journey, but also intertextualizes the artist’s personal career with the development of contemporary Chinese art and society.
Exhibition site, two works by Yu Youhan in his later years
Yu Youhan (1943-2023) was born in Shanghai. He graduated from the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts in 1973 and taught at the Shanghai School of Arts and Crafts from 1973 to 2003. Yu Youhan was one of the first contemporary artists to be recognized internationally after China's reform and opening up. He was a representative artist of abstract art and political pop art in China's avant-garde art movement in the 1980s and 1990s. On December 13, 2023, he died of COVID-19. "Youhan and Yu Youhan: Yu Youhan's Early Experience and Late Style" is the first large-scale retrospective exhibition of the artist Yu Youhan after his death.
Exhibition View
Different from the single exhibition line, "Yu Youhan and Yu Youhan: Yu Youhan's Early Experience and Late Style" has two entrances. One is the early landscape, followed by the study of Cézanne and the Yimeng Mountain series; the other is his early study of various schools of Western modern art and works combined with Chinese arts and crafts. The two clues meet and merge in the "Circle" series. At the same time, the documents and manuscripts in the display cabinets silently tell the birth process of these works and the background of the times.
The entrance to the early landscape end of the exhibition
The exhibition catalogue of French 19th Century Rural Landscapes in the late 1970s was displayed in the same display cabinet as the Stone Drum Inscriptions and Zhang Qian Stele calligraphy copied by Yu Youhan. The former was the first time a generation of Chinese people were exposed to original Western paintings, while the latter was the artist's study and attention to Chinese traditions. The understanding of Eastern and Western art and culture has always been a part of the artist's practice.
Yu Youhan, “2019 5-3”, 61x161cm, acrylic on canvas, 2019
The curators of this exhibition, Liu Ding and Lu Yinghua, are deeply involved in the research and writing of Chinese contemporary art history. In an exchange with a reporter from The Paper, Lu Yinghua particularly mentioned the two entrances and the mirrored display of the entire exhibition, and suggested that no matter which entrance the audience enters from, walk to the end (which is also the starting point), and then walk back again.
One of the many self-portraits of Yu Youhan on display in the exhibition.
As for the exhibition title "Youhan and Yu Youhan", the curator uses it as a way to get to know Yu Youhan. "In his earlier and smaller works, Yu Youhan often signed his name as 'Youhan', while in his more numerous and larger works, he signed his full name. At the same time, in his explorations at different times, Yu Youhan always created works with autobiographical characteristics in the form and theme of the time. These self-portraits have become a kind of mark, marking his concerns and feelings at different times."
A group of Yu Youhan's self-portraits in different styles at the exhibition
Yu Youhan was born in Shanghai in 1943, and lived and worked in Shanghai until his death in December 2023. His artistic life spanned several turbulent historical periods in the development of Chinese contemporary art. His creation originated from the rapidly changing social life, and he implicitly translated his thoughts on life and culture through art. In his later years, he fully ruminated on his early creative experience, showing a changeable, agile, free and peaceful appearance in his works.
Yu Youhan, “Yimeng Mountain with Flowers”, 199x108cm, acrylic on canvas, 2005
In the exhibition, in addition to some works with work titles, many works only have the creation time, which also most intuitively presents Yu Youhan’s exploration in different time periods - Yu Youhan’s self-portrait at the age of 15, post-impressionist landscape sketches in the 1970s, and works in the 1980s that explored modernist forms. The first abstract "circle" and the first work that integrated calligraphy into the "circle" were born one after another, until Yu Youhan’s later years In his large works that combined abstraction and concreteness... It shows the process of an artist’s continuous growth and self-expansion.
Dialogue | Yu Youhan's son talks about his father's artistic creation
The Paper had an exclusive interview with Yu Youhan’s only son, Yu Yu, who talked about his father’s creations from his own perspective, his father in his eyes, and future plans for Yu Youhan’s artistic legacy.
Yu Youhan Portrait Photography Yu Yu
The Paper: This is the first large-scale retrospective of Yu Youhan since his death. What is special about this exhibition? Yu Youhan's solo exhibition at the Power Station of Art (PSA) in Shanghai in 2016 was the largest and most comprehensive retrospective at the time. Compared to that time, what has been added to this large-scale retrospective nearly ten years later?
Yu Yu: The planning of this exhibition began shortly after my father passed away. Before his death, we had discussed exhibition plans with many art galleries, but due to his sudden death, these plans were shelved. For any artist, his artistic career often needs to be systematically sorted out after his death, so it is necessary to hold a comprehensive retrospective exhibition to fully sort out and present his artistic career.
Yu Youhan, Self-portrait at the age of 15
Coincidentally, the curators of this exhibition, Liu Ding and Lu Yinghua, had already come into contact with my father a few years before his death and had started academic research with him. They not only have outstanding academic abilities, but also have an international perspective, and they served as the chief curators of last year’s Yokohama Triennale.
I understand that academic research is crucial to a retrospective exhibition. This exhibition ultimately presents the results of long-term research, covering all stages since he entered the art field, focusing on "the relationship between the various stages" and "the relationship between various styles and themes", emphasizing the whole process.
Yu Youhan, “1983-11”, 108cm×78cm, acrylic on paper, 1983
The works exhibited at the Power Station of Art (PSA) in Shanghai only cover the period up to mid-2016. In fact, my father still created a large number of works from 2016 to the second half of 2019, which was also his "culmination" period. These works were not included in the previous PSA exhibition. Of course, the 2016 PSA exhibition has extremely high academic research value, but my father was still in the stage of continuous creation at that time, and many uncertain factors had not yet taken shape.
Yu Youhan, “Confrontation”, acrylic on canvas, 60x60cm, 2018
The Paper: As the exhibition title "Youhan and Yu Youhan: Yu Youhan's Early Experience and Late Style" states, the signatures "Youhan" and "Yu Youhan" correspond to his early experience and late style. In your opinion, what is the relationship between your father's early experience and late style?
Yu Yu: "Early experience" refers to how creation is produced. His abstract, pop and other styles did not appear out of thin air. He was over 40 when he started to create the abstract series. From the time he started learning painting in his teens to the time he was 40, how did his artistic exploration evolve in the 30 years between the ages of 10 and 40? "Late style" mainly focuses on his creative state after the age of 70 and his final creative appearance and height.
Yu Youhan, 2019 3-6, 107x160cm, acrylic on canvas. 2019
The curator summarized the “early experience” and “late style” as “a dynamic progression and self-reconstruction relationship”, and I completely agree. My more popular understanding is that some early explorations must have laid the foundation for the later ones.
From the overall context, I think my father's artistic creation can be roughly divided into the early and late periods, and mainly involves three major themes: landscape, figure, and abstract. The early landscape series was deeply influenced by Western modernism represented by Cézanne. The exploration during this period focused on the accumulation of experience in color and composition. The early abstract series combines Western modernist experience with elements of traditional Chinese arts and crafts (including brushwork and aesthetics). In addition, the early figure series (mainly pop leaders) is a combination of Chinese political propaganda paintings, Western pop art at the time, and Chinese folklore and folk art.
Yu Youhan, “1991 19”, 77x77cm, acrylic on canvas, 1991
I think the watershed between his early and late periods was after he participated in the Venice Biennale and the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1993 and 1994. He went to the United States for 9 months to study Western art. After returning to China, his figure series gradually turned to what we now see as the "late style", and finally fully matured in the "Yimeng Mountain" series, when he was over 60 years old. After 2003, he resumed abstract creation, and in 2010 he combined abstraction with figuration, which was a development of his early exploration.
In the early stage of his artistic career, each series of creation was relatively independent, while in the later stage, he explored different series in a cross-cutting manner, and even carried out multiple themes at the same time. Therefore, the connection between the series became closer and closer. In the late stage, he established a symbiotic relationship between different visual elements such as abstraction and concreteness, points, lines, planes, and heaven, earth, and people, and there was no boundary.
Yu Youhan, “Yimeng Mountain 18”, 148x122cmx2, acrylic on canvas, 2005
The exhibition includes a large number of works that have never been exhibited, including many early documents that are being shown for the first time. The two curators conducted in-depth research on their father’s early notes and sketches, and more importantly, how to combine these texts and sketches with his creative practice so that the audience can clearly understand the process of his artistic development.
A study of composition in Yu Youhan's notebooks
The Paper: What are the main unpublished works and documents? Do they fill in previously unknown research areas?
Yu Yu: In terms of early documents, my father left behind some notebooks and sketchbooks, which are not suitable for frequent reading due to their age. The curatorial team scanned their contents and exhibited some key pages in the form of replicas, including diaries and art notes, revealing his thoughts on certain issues. In addition, early materials show that as early as the early 1980s, he had begun to explore abstract art. However, it was not until the end of 1984 that he established the specific form of the "Circle" series. During these four or five years, he studied extensively from Western art masters and combined with the experience of local Chinese arts and crafts, and conducted a lot of exploration and practice, all of which are made public for the first time.
Yu Youhan, “1984-12”, 108x98cm, acrylic on canvas, 1984 (the first work in the “Circle” series)
Looking back, although he may not have completely followed the exploration in his notes, these attempts are valuable and have reached a certain level. Therefore, I think this part of the work is very interesting and is also an important part of the "case study" of art history. In China in the 1980s, many art workers were trying to combine international art language with local traditions, but compared with the works of his students in the "50s" and "60s" during the same period, his works may be more mature, so the works of this period are particularly worthy of attention.
Yu Youhan's many creative sketches.
Among his late works, there are two particularly large abstract works with figurative meanings, both measuring about 3 meters by 2 meters. Since he has always been working at home or in the studio, the room is very small, this is the maximum size he can create. One of the works is a poster work, and the visual impact is particularly strong when facing the original work.
Yu Youhan, “2018 10-4”, 230x302cm, acrylic on canvas, 2018
The Paper: Last year, several state-owned art museums in Shanghai jointly hosted the exhibition “Starting from Shanghai: A Glimpse of Chinese Oil Painting in the Past Century”, in which Yu Youhan was the youngest participating artist and the only artist in the field of contemporary art. What is the relationship between Yu Youhan and Shanghai oil painting in the past?
Yu Yu: In a sense, the development of Shanghai oil painting is also the development of modern Chinese art. My father was born in Changle Road, Shanghai, and his family had no artistic background. Fortunately, his neighbor, Mr. Fan Jiman, an artist who traveled to Europe, not only engaged in painting creation, but also ran a bookstore. His home had a large number of Western modernist art books. According to Mr. Fan’s son’s recollection, before and after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, his family had the latest Western picture albums published in the 1940s, which included popular artists at the time such as Picasso. My father can’t say that he has read every one of these picture albums, but he has definitely read some. For him, who studied art by self-study during college and later, the artistic enlightenment brought to him by Mr. Fan and his family’s collection of books was crucial.
In mid-2024, the exhibition "Starting from Shanghai: A Glimpse of Chinese Oil Painting in the Past Century" (Shanghai Liu Haisu Art Museum) included Yu Youhan's works. Many of his works were exhibited in Shenzhen this time.
After Mr. Fan, my father entered the Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts. At that time, the principal, Mr. Zhang Ding, proposed the concept of "Picasso + Chenghuang Temple" (but it is not clear whether this concept was originally created by Mr. Zhang), emphasizing the combination of international experience and local tradition. This concept had a profound impact on my father's creation, and basically his later creations also developed from this line. Tracing back to the origin, Mr. Zhang Ding studied in Shanghai before liberation and studied under Mr. Zhang Guangyu. After that, Zhang Guangyu and Zhang Ding both went to Beijing, and my father, as a student of Zhang Ding, had a certain inheritance relationship with the early Shanghai modernist art and its artists.
Yu Youhan, “Confrontation”, acrylic on canvas, 60x60cm, 2018
In the last year of the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts (1973), the school resumed classes one after another, and there was a sketching trip before graduation. The teachers at that time were Wu Guanzhong and Zhu Danian, who studied in France and Japan respectively and brought their overseas learning experience back to China. However, under the art system at that time, their artistic exploration was marginalized. But their creative concepts and styles still had a profound impact on later artists, especially their students.
Among them, Mr. Zhu Danian had a particularly profound influence on my father. My father was an introvert during his student days, but Mr. Zhu Danian not only actively affirmed his creations, but also gave him great encouragement and help. This was the only time my father received encouragement from a teacher during his studies, and he always remembered it.
Exhibition site, Yu Youhan's early landscape paintings
Finally, after the reform and opening up, during my father's early landscape creation period, many modernist artists in Shanghai were still alive. Among them, Mr. Zhou Bichu was a relative of my family. In the late 1970s, my father took some of his practice works to Mr. Zhou and received many pertinent suggestions, which benefited him a lot. At the same time, artists such as Mr. Yan Wenliang also lived not far away. My father visited them through friends and received some guidance from these predecessors.
Yu Youhan, 1980-1,39
Although he quickly entered the next stage of his creation, I always believe that his early learning experience in landscape painting is extremely important and laid a solid foundation for his entire artistic career. Therefore, I firmly believe that my father has a close and direct connection with Chinese modern art, especially Shanghai oil painting.
Yu Youhan's manuscripts
The Paper: From the abstract "Circle" series, to "Political Pop", to "Ah! We" focusing on tradition and ordinary people, to the "Yimeng Mountain" landscape that returns to the countryside, and finally back to the abstract world. As a son, how do you understand his artistic exploration in different periods?
Yu Yu: The evolution of my father's different art series is closely related to the various historical stages after the reform and opening up. Among them, the abstract "Circle" series is his exploration of oriental aesthetics and his attempt to construct Chinese modern art. He tried to combine Western abstract composition with oriental aesthetics. Moreover, the country had just recovered from the "Cultural Revolution" at that time. This movement must have had some influence on their generation. He may have hoped to seek a quiet and peaceful atmosphere in his creation. Therefore, he spent most of the 1980s creating abstract and "Circle" series.
Yu Youhan, 1986 06, 160x130cm, acrylic on canvas, 1986
Regarding political pop, "Ah, We", and the Yimeng Mountain landscape series, he once summarized: "As for me, I first paint the leaders, then the people, and finally the land where the people live." Leaders play a very important role in the lives of their generation; the "Ah, We" series focuses on ordinary people around him, which is his most concerned theme. The creation of the Yimeng Mountain series is not based on aesthetic considerations of natural scenery. He created this series because he had the opportunity to go to Yimeng Mountain to meet the simple local people and was touched by their lifestyle away from the hustle and bustle of the city and unintruded by the "commodity society". Therefore, what he depicts is not just scenery, but "the land where people live."
Yu Youhan, “Yimeng Mountain 05”, 240x150cm, acrylic on canvas, 2002
Later, he returned to abstraction. Critic Bo Xiaobo once commented that in his creation, cultural consciousness and painting consciousness are always intertwined. In responding to society, he mostly expresses himself in the form of figurative painting, while in the exploration of painting language, he tends to express himself in an abstract way. When the two are intertwined, sometimes cultural consciousness is dominant, and sometimes painting consciousness is dominant. These are his two lines, but the two lines are intertwined.
Yu Youhan, “Pain of the East”, 226x266cm, acrylic on canvas, 2015 (Following Yu Yu’s introduction, on June 1, 2015, the Eastern Star ship capsized in Jingzhou, Hubei Province. Yu Youhan learned about this tragedy in the news and added figures to the “Circle” series that was originally about to be completed)
The Paper: Is there some unchanging core in his creations?
Yu Yu: I can just borrow some of the summaries of the curators of this exhibition. They summarized three points, one of which is called "dynamic exploration of modernity". That is, my father's creation has always been a dialectical dialogue between "Western memory-Chinese philosophy" and "formal practice-cultural connotation", breaking the linear narrative framework of art history. This is of course a more academic description. In my understanding, it is "cultural self-reliance": no matter what good experiences there are internationally, we still have to create in our own way.
At the exhibition, among the documents on display, Yu Youhan talked about using the brush strokes he used in copying stone inscriptions and calligraphy in painting.
Exhibition site, Yu Youhan's early circle series works.
The second point summarized by the curator is called "Poetics of Resistance" - not only innovation in form, but also resistance to the alienation of life and great changes in the times, showing the independent mind maintained by artists in the folds of history. My understanding is "independent thinking". Artists, like intellectuals, must have the ability to think independently. Because the times are always changing rapidly, we cannot follow the crowd or be led by the trend. My father always adheres to his personal creative concept. For example, in the 1970s, when most people were still learning Soviet painting, he had begun to explore Impressionism; and when performance art was popular, he made some abstract paintings that seemed not avant-garde enough. Therefore, he always maintains a moderate distance from market trends and creates in his own way, rather than adjusting the direction of his creation due to the expectations of the market or the audience.
Exhibition site, Yu Youhan's late circle series works.
The second is "the practice of cultural politics". The curator believes that Yu Youhan's art provides an alternative path to modernity for Chinese contemporary art. Through self-expansion and an open attitude towards history, he reconstructs the intertwined relationship between national spirit and global vision. My understanding of this is a dialectical thinking about history and the future. In the face of complex historical experiences, we need to have the ability to discern. My father's generation may have learned materialist dialectics more deeply, so he thinks that everything has both positive and negative sides. Including the relationship between the East and the West (which we mentioned earlier), we must look for valuable things within the scope of the world, or in the ancient and modern times and even in the future. These are probably some of the unchanging cores of his creations.
Exhibition View
The Paper: Yu Youhan’s social roles are artist and teacher. How do you view his social roles? What kind of father is he in the eyes of his son?
Yu Yu: I think the two identities of artist and teacher complement each other. He always felt that he could study art through teaching, and he could communicate and learn from his students. So he and his students were both teachers and friends. I think creation and teaching are the two things he has been doing all his life.
He once proposed the advice of "heart, brain, hand, and eye" to young art teachers, and he himself also implemented it. "Heart" means a sense of responsibility, and I think my father has a sense of responsibility. He feels that he should do something for the Chinese art cause. "Brain" means a rational and thoughtful mind, which is the "independent personality" mentioned earlier. Art creation is not purely emotional. Although it requires feelings, he believes that it is more rational content, especially to understand the world, which definitely requires rationality. "Eye" mainly refers to aesthetics, which is the most important for artists. First of all, you must have the ability to distinguish between beauty and ugliness. How to continuously improve aesthetics? Of course, on the one hand, you need talent, and on the other hand, you need to learn from the world's best works of art, which is also what he told his students. He even emphasized that you can have high aspirations and low hands first - if you have a high aesthetics first, you can get twice the result with half the effort in the future. Then there is "hands", he emphasizes hands-on practical ability. Everything cannot just stay on the verbal level, you have to realize it and have the ability to act.
Yu Youhan's research on Picasso in his notebooks.
In my impression, he is not a father who likes to preach, but more like a companion. We do many things together. For example, he emphasizes the importance of physical exercise. He would ride a bicycle, swim, and play tennis with me. He directly influenced me with his actions. In addition, he would teach me anything he thought was good. When I was a child, his biggest hobbies were photography and music. He liked Western classical music and could make speakers by himself. He was one of the first batch of music enthusiasts in Shanghai (although his fever was not very strong). When he only earned a few hundred yuan a month, he had already bought speakers worth thousands of yuan. When I was in junior high school, he signed me up for a Western classical music class. Although I didn't understand it very well at the time, it was my musical enlightenment. He also took photos of me, printed and displayed the photos himself. I didn't feel particularly touched when I was a child, but after I turned 40, I became more and more aware of the preciousness of these hobbies.
Yu Youhan, “The Well-Tempered Clavier”, 260x207cm, acrylic on canvas, 2010
In my impression, my father was emotionally stable, at least very kind and amiable to me, and he would not preach. I guess he had a similar attitude in teaching and treating his students.
At the exhibition, on the left is Yu Youhan's early work of studying Paul Klee, and on the right is Yu Youhan's later work, with Chinese musical instruments in the painting. Yu Youhan also plays the erhu.
The Paper: How should Mr. Yu Youhan's artistic legacy be managed, inherited and interpreted? When sorting out his works and documents, are there any works or notes that you have not noticed before that give you a new understanding of his creations or thoughts?
Yu Yu: This time, the two curators put the works, notes, and sketches into the context of the time. Important historical events and publications related to the timeline will also be presented in this exhibition. There are more young audiences now, which also helps the audience understand the context of the time.
Exhibition site, “Study of Cézanne” section
Yu Youhan, “Yimeng Mountain 01”, 260×112cm, acrylic on canvas, 2002
The curator's research on the works and documents was extremely meticulous, and I don't think I have the patience to do so. For example, the exhibition has a special section called "Study on Cézanne", many of which are from my father's old painting box, which has never been published or exhibited. I personally think that this part is very valuable, especially the two works that have gone beyond the learning stage and entered a more abstract creative exploration.
Yu Youhan's handwritten autobiography
Furthermore, the viewing experience of the original work is very important. We also hope to hold as many exhibitions as possible, because the atmosphere of the original work is very different from that of a print or a screen.
Exhibition site, Yu Youhan's late work "Peach Blossom Spring"
Regarding the inheritance of "artistic heritage", the first task is academic research. We are trying to invite high-level scholars at home and abroad to conduct in-depth interpretation and research on relevant materials. In October this year, Tsinghua University Art Museum will also hold an important retrospective exhibition, which may be more interpreted from the relationship between my father's creation and traditional Chinese arts and crafts. Different scholars and institutions may have different research perspectives, but in general, we follow the "general-specific-general" research method, that is, to analyze his works from different angles within a macro framework.
Documents on display
For me, the so-called "inheritance" means finding a suitable destination for my father's works. The most ideal destination is, of course, an art museum. Therefore, we are currently cooperating with important art museums at home and abroad (mainly domestic) for exhibitions, hoping that some of the works will eventually be collected by art museums so that more audiences can appreciate the original works. At the same time, we are also organizing publications. At least two new books will be published this year, which will allow everyone to have a more comprehensive understanding of my father's creations.
Yu Youhan in his studio. Image copyright: Power Station of Art, Shanghai
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