Huang Yongyu is a contemporary Chinese writer, artist and wood sculptor, well-known for his prints, paintings, and literary works. In his works, Huang usually depicts scenes of wildlife, foliage, or human figures, and combines traditional Chinese painting with western oil painting techniques.
Background
Yongyu was born in Fenghuang, Hunan, China, on August 24, 1924, into a family of Huang Yushu and Yang Guanghui, a member of Communist Party of China (CPC) amid the Kuomintang ruling (1912-1949). Huang mostly resembles his father but takes after his mother in terms of temper.
Huang Yongyu moved with his parents to China’s scenic Phoenix Town when he was just a few months old. The mountains’ landscape and the town’s water scenery left Huang with many priceless childhood memories and greatly influenced him.
Education
Huang Yongyu never attended a regular school, instead, he studied literature and art on his own. He mainly learned through his friends, society and personal experiences.
Career
At the beginning of his artistic career, Huang was famous for his prints, which used bold lines and an unconstrained style. Until the early 1960s, he devoted himself mostly to woodcuts. The period from the late 1950s to the middle 1960s marked the golden age of his woodcuts, for instance, he created Ahshima and Spring Tide.
Around the 1950s Huang became the youngest teacher at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. During the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s, Huang Yongyu, like many other artists, was persecuted by the Mao Zedong’s regime. His well-known Owl series, which portray owls with one eye shut, meant as a symbol of government officials turning a blind eye to injustices, landed him in a labour camp for three and half years.
Since the 1970s, Huang has created a great number of coloured ink paintings depicting landscapes, flowers, and birds using freehand techniques. They also include human figures and scenes with humorous messages or historical allusions.
Huang Yongyu's combination of fresh topics, bold strokes, and dripping colours makes an original style in contemporary Chinese painting. At the same time, his use of traditional Chinese painting techniques contributes to his fame. His caricatures and canvas paintings are also universally recognized.
Two major subjects of Huang's works are plum blossoms and water lilies. For instance, Huang Yongyu has made up to 8,000 images depicting water lilies. As for painting tools, Huang uses paintbrushes, branches, his fingers, and dry pulp. He created his paintings with amazing speed and confidence.
The artist's folk artworks are particularly popular abroad. The People's Art Press published his Collection of Woodcarvings in 1956, and he has been on the cover of the American magazine Time, and had paintings published by the Hong Kong Artist's Press and the Hunan Art Press in 1980.
An exhibition of his art was held in celebration of his 80th birthday in 2004. It began in Beijing and finished in Hong Kong, it featured both old and new artworks. The artist has served as the head of the engraving school of the China National Academy of Painting since August 31, 2010.
More recently, the artist has broadened his practice to include sculpture. In August of 2013, his first "Complete works of painting" was published and became one of the most expensive collections at 13,800 yuan ($2,250) for an ordinary hardcover and 128,000 yuan ($20,935) for a super hardcover. Huang Yongyu is now working on a novel entitled "A wanderer from the carefree river," which is based on his own experience.
Views
Quotations:
"From when I was very young I lived a hard and even dangerous life. I just learned to cope with everything with the help of a cheerful attitude."
"I tried to adjust to hardship and I tried to find opportunities to paint. I have never regretted a thing."
"Every era has its own peak. You cannot really compare art in different eras. Art is not about how to beat the last generation. Even the most avant-garde paintings now will appear traditional in the future, and both traditional and avant-garde art have good and bad points."
"Being new is not necessarily good, just like girls are not always good-looking just because they are wearing the latest clothes. The same rules apply to being old."
Personality
Huang Yongyu has never invited any particular people or celebrities to his exhibitions, considering everyone should have equal access to art. However, he once made an exception at his exhibition in Beijing in 1999. During a dark and difficult period in his life, a gardener sent the artist flowers and gave him encouragement to get him through. But they lost contact with each other and Huang spent years looking for him. When the two friends were finally reunited, Huang Yongyu broke his rule and invited the gardener to be a distinguished guest at his exhibition.
Some say the artist chooses the prices for his paintings according to his mood, giving a low price when he is in good mood and hiking the price when in a bad one. Others say he asked for 60, 000 RMB (about $7,489) for each square foot of art piece.
Huang Yongyu has put up a notice on the wall of his house, writing that all deals made should be paid for in cash, which would later be donated to the restoration of picturesque spots and pavilions in his native town.