Yuan Wu, Executive Director of Beijing Fine Art Academy, is one of the outstanding Chinese painters of today. His paintings of human characters are informative, solid, hard and heavy, displaying a deep humanistic concern and tragic sympathy. His works won awards from the 7th to the 10th national fine arts exhibitions, of which Group Paintings of the Resistance Union – Survival won the gold prize in the 10th National Fine Arts exhibition.

This exhibition is a collection of his representative works, which are portraits of human characters and some sketches, about 70 in total, featuring Yuan Wu’s creation over the last three decades since the 1990s. The exhibition comprises of four sections: 1) Long River: a thematic exhibition of portraits of human characters as represented by Series Paintings of the Resistance Union; 2) Black Soil: a thematic exhibition of human portraits with northeast Chinese peasants as the subject matter, as represented by The Water Is Not Deep; 3) Plateau: an exhibition of minor ethnic characters as represented by The Morning of Jokhang Temple; and 4) Sketches: 20 items of sketches over three decades. This exhibition is a phased summary of Mr. Yuan Wu’s works over nearly three decades. It is both retrospective and prospective and a new starting point for the next creative stage. It is believed that this exhibition is an excellent summary of Mr. Yuan Wu’s academic works and surely it will inspire the creation of contemporary Chinese paintings, especially in the creation of figure paintings.

Yuan Wu is an important representative of realistic figure painting in China. He follows the path of realistic creation that belongs to the “Xu-Jiang System” and he portrays the familiar everyday characters while he presents significant thematic creation. In his creations, he combines realistic concepts with Chinese traditional image modeling and also he pays attention to the expression of Chinese ink, so as to pursue the spirit of Chinese figure paintings within the context of the contemporary.

As a respect for Yuan’s outstanding achievements in thematic creation, Fan Di’an, President of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts has defined him as “the standard-bearer of subjective painting,” but from the works included in this exhibition, especially a series of paintings with plateau characters as themes represented by The Morning of Jokhang Temple, his artistic concepts and performance language have undergone profound changes.

Feng Yuan, Deputy Director of the Central Literature and History Research Institute and Vice Chairman of the Chinese Artists Association, mentioned in his speech that Yuan Wu was a representative artist who devoted himself to art creations. He did not only have solid academic skills, but he also integrates his own feelings and artistic accomplishment in his realistic creations.

As a colleague of Yuan Wu, Wang Mingming, Director of Beijing Fine Art Academy commented that Yuan Wu was a passionate and industrious artist, who was very thoughtful and conscious finding beauty in life as well as being good at art transformation. He dared to challenge himself and explore the unknown.

Prof. Shao Dazhen from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, confirmed the value of Yuan Wu’s art from the perspective of national cultural self-confidence. His work was endowed with a profound sense of the black lands in Northeast China and the flexibility of southern painting.

In the creative method, Yuan Wu pursues a type of image modeling, generally from the whole, it’s an overall impression with partial realism. There are the light and shadow in Western painting that can be seen in the facial structure of his figures, in a realistic way presenting the three-dimensional image of the figure, but the overall character shape maintains the literati taste of traditional ink and wash paintings. The Morning of Jokhang Temple series is one of his most important works which is included in this exhibition, starting from which he began to “change”, Buddhist disciples kowtow with both hands pointing together,  the work highlights the height of humanity, the religious piety and artistic redemption that seem to find a perfect connection in the image, with both vicissitude and perseverance.

Art critic Lang Shaojun commented on Yuan Wu’s figure painting, saying that, he emphasized the figurative features, but not “cartoon creation.” This was the realistic spirit of Yuan Wu’s figure painting, in which he has the realistic concern of the characters while he retains the characteristics and charm of language of ink.

Organized by the National Art Museum of China and the Beijing Fine Art Academy, the exhibition was held at the National Art Museum from September 2 through to September 11.

Text by Zhang Wenzhi and Photo by Yang Yanyuan/CAFA ART INFO

Translated and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO