Solo Exhibition Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, Hall 10 & 11, Building 1, No.30 Tenglong Road, Longhua District
curator: Liu Ding, Carol Yinghua Lu
opening: 3pm, March 25, 2025
The Shenzhen Art Museum is the oldest art institution in Shenzhen, with the motto of "rooted in the local, facing the global; anchored in the present, looking to the future", the museum has witnessed and borne the historical development of Shenzhen's art, constructed the context of modern Chinese art, and actively fulfilled multiple roles as a disseminator of Chinese art, an observer of contemporary art, a comber of the art context, and a constructor of urban culture. Holding Mr. Yu Youhan's solo exhibition is precisely an important move by the Shenzhen Art Museum in sorting out the art context and promoting the development of contemporary art. The exhibition seeks to reveal the conceptual underpinnings of his stylistic evolution by fostering a dialogue between his early practice and his later one. It also aims to establish an intertextual connection between the artist’s personal trajectory and the development of Chinese contemporary art in terms of their intellectual undercurrents.
Yu Youhan was born in 1943 and deceased in 2023. His artistic life traversed across several tumultuous periods in the historical course of contemporary art in China. His art emerged from a period of the society characterized by dramatic shifts and he subtly translated his reflections on life and culture into his works. In his later years, he fully digested and reactivated his early creative experiences. As a result, his late works appeared to be constantly changing, flexible, fluid, and tranquil. Yu once summarized the factors that shaped his art as such, "On the one hand, they might be the emotional stimulations brought about by society itself; on the other hand, they might be trends in global contemporary art; and furthermore, they might be the influence of local historical and reality issues. I painted the collisions among the three." This general description can encompass nearly every stage of his works, which vary considerably in forms and subject matters.
This exhibition depicts Yu's creative life through two mutually reinforcing spectrums: his early experience and his later style. His early experiences include post-impressionist landscape paintings in the 70s, his exploration of modernist forms in the 1980s, which culminated with the "Circles" series, under the influence of Cultural Fever of the time. As to his later styles, which were formed from 2002 to his last days, he continued to re-project the experiences he had accumulated through previous stages, ultimately delivering a relaxed and natural "late style" that transcended time while releasing the joys and discoveries of his early years. As early as in 1983, Yu Youhan recognized in Picasso's art the quality of infinite variations both in various stages of his practice and in every single part of his painting, colors differing in edges and lines varying in ending points. He thus held himself up to such a standard. It's this self-expectation that can unify all of Yu's later inventions. From "Youhan" to "Yu Youhan," it is a journey that encapsulates an artist's continuous growth and self-expansion. Decades of contemplation and exploration in art empowers Yu's works with unsurpassed breadth and depth, offering a rich legacy for the art world. Yu Youhan's practice proves such a point: in art, the search for artistic creation within oneself can go all the way to the end.
Shenzhen Art Museum
March, 2025
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