These early paintings by Huang Rui could be linked to paintings of other artists painting in the late 1980s, including Wang Guangyi in Beijing and Geng Jianyi in Hangzhou. With Huang Rui, a new language of Chinese art emerges that is based on spiritual presence in painting and the subject under rapid economic and social change in China. This language further extends into an important movement of abstraction in China during the course of the first half of the 1980s. Huang Rui’s first abstraction comes in the form of the painting, Infinite Space (1979), which shows references to Wassily Kandinsky in it its use of line and color composition. In 1983 the work of Picasso further inspired Huang Rui, after seeing an exhibition of his in Beijing. By late 1983, Huang Rui would, however, embark on a series of paintings that completely altered the perspective on abstraction in China. Previously, abstraction had largely been the focus of paintings by artists working in both ink and oil. This can also been seen in works of Zhang Wei, another important artist during this period and a member of the No Name (Wuming) Group, an artist group active in Beijing during the 1970s and early 1980s.
extract from Huang Rui website Back |
Huang Rui, Infinite Space, 1979, Oil on canvas, 55 x 74 cm
|