Yu Youhan (Chinese, born 1943), 余友涵


Yi Mengshan 02 2002signed and dated 2002.10; dated 2002.10.5 on the reverseacrylic on canvas112 x 260 cm (44 1/8 x 102 3/8 in)
|ProvenanceShanghART Gallery, ShanghaiDr Walid Juffali Collection, LondonGift from the above to the present owner ExhibitedShanghai, ShanghART Gallery, Yu Youhan, Landscape of Yi Meng Shan, 2004, p.3, illustrated in color 余友涵沂蒙山 02壓克力畫布2002年作簽名：2002.10 余友涵背面簽名：二〇〇二年十月五日來源上海香格納畫廊Dr Walid Juffali 私人收藏上述藏家贈予現藏家展覽「沂蒙山風景: 余友涵的繪畫」，香格納畫廊，上海，2004年，第3頁，彩圖Yu began a series of landscape paintings after visiting the Yimeng mountains in 2002 with his colleagues of the Shanghai Art and Design Academy. Inspired by the serenity of nature and kindness of the locals, Yu described life in Yimeng as "what life was like before we had been alienated, when we were pure of mind" (the artist in an interview with Hans-Ulrich Obrist, 'Yu Youhan: Abstract, Concrete', shanghartgallery.com, 2009). Living in Shanghai, Yu resented rapid urbanization of the city and often referred to skyscrapers and buildings as "empty shells." The trip to Yimeng was his way of leaving society and retreating from the hustle and bustle of city life, reminiscent of Chinese literati in the Song-Dynasty who longed to find sanctuary from chaos by retreating into the mountains to paint. Upon returning to Shanghai, Yu painted vast landscapes of the mountains based on photographs he took on the trip. Instead of focusing on the resemblance of nature, Yu combined different photographs for each composition, constructing his own idea of the mountains. In a monograph of Yu, author Paul Gladstone mentioned the Yi Mengshan series as "hybrid landscapes" that aimed to arrive at a sense of "synthetic harmony and combinatory stylistic uplift." Achieving pictorial harmony between each component of his compositions has always been critical to Yu's oeuvre. In Yi Mengshan 02, Yu renders the mountains in a distinctive style of abstraction heavily embedded in traditional Chinese aesthetics, achieving a harmonious tranquility and peacefulness of the mountains.Depicted in blurred muted gray brushstrokes in the background, it is difficult to decipher exactly how far the mountains lie from the vast field as they almost merge into the sky. Moving along the exquisite landscape, our eyes are guided to accents of red and brown staccato brushstrokes amid the fields and finally, to a tree on the left with dark voluminous foliage rendered in dotted form. Limiting his palette to gray, blue, green, and gold, Yu renders the landscape in a painterly technique that traces to methods carried out by the Impressionists in nineteenth-century Europe, particularly displaying striking correspondence to Cézanne's landscapes of Mount Saint Victoire. Both Cézanne and Yu longed to create pictorial effects, apparent in their simplification of brushstrokes and precision of color, balancing the heaviness of the mountains with lighter details. Highly adept at achieving coloristic harmonies and linear rhythm, Cézanne focuses on colors and shapes to depict depth and the majestic grandeur of mountains. In a similar manner, Yu creates breadth through meandering brushstrokes of musk green to lime green across Yi Mengshan 02, outlining each of the lush green fields with fluid gray lines. Yu graduated from the Central Academy of Art and Design in Beijing in 1973. As a groundbreaking artist of Chinese contemporary art, he represented China at the Venice Biennale in 1993 and Sao Paulo Art Biennial in 1994. Spanning various artistic approaches, Yu's creative process is an ongoing exploration and response to the shifts of the political and socioeconomic landscape in China in relation to his personal consciousness. He has experimented with abstract paintings and landscapes, and is widely recognized as a pioneer of Political Pop, a movement that responded to the rapid sociopolitical changes in China. In an interview with Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Yu mentioned that change is natural to him and believed that "if the outside world changes, an artist should respond to these changes accordingly." In the catalogue accompanying the exhibition at ShanghART gallery in 2004, Yu speaks of Political Pop as a tool, heavily influenced by Western stylistic approaches, that he has finished working with: "Pop Art is like a western tree to Chinese soil, like breeding a Western tree with a Chinese tree. I want to make an art that is like a Chinese tree growing naturally from Chinese soil." Painted when Yu was in his sixties, this exceptional pastoral landscape is archetypal of his transition into a new artistic approach, registering a plurality of meanings from his various aesthetics and response to sociopolitical changes, serving ultimately as an expression of the artist's voice deeply rooted in Chinese culture. 離開了城市的濁與鬧，在藍天與純厚的人民之間，我非常愉快。我一直認為，只有從自己的生活中悟出靈感來，才能真正搞出東西來。—余友涵，2004年6月6日余友涵在二〇〇二年與上海工藝美術職業學院的同事一起造訪沂蒙山後，開始創作一系列的風景畫。接觸到寧靜的景緻和樸實的人民，余友涵對沂蒙山的描述是「像是回到我們變得疏離之前的生活，曾幾何時，我們擁有純淨的心靈。」居住在上海的余友涵不喜歡快速的都市發展，常常將摩天大樓和建築物稱作「空殼」。沂蒙山之旅是他從喧鬧的都市生活中抽離，離群索居的一種方式，就像宋代的中國文人，渴望拋開塵囂隱遁到深山中安靜地作畫。回到上海之後，余友涵根據拍攝的照片畫出此行中看到的遼闊山景。不過他的重點不在於重現自然，而是組合不同的照片，建構自己心目中理想的山。作家保羅・格拉德斯通（Paul Gladstone）在余友涵專論中指稱「沂蒙山」系列為「混合的風景」，主要是為了達到「合成的融合和綜合性的風格提升」之感。余友涵的創作重點一直在於利用構圖的各個元素達到和諧的畫面。」在《沂蒙山02》一作中，余友涵用根植於中國傳統美學的獨特抽象風格畫出山景，創造出山景中靜謐而和諧的氛圍。 看到背景中模糊低調的灰色筆觸，我們很難得知山景距離偌大的田野到底有多遠，它像是與天空融合為一。觀看這片美景，紅色和褐色的筆觸點綴著田野，我們目光從此游移到左邊一棵點狀描繪成茂密深色樹葉的樹。在此余友涵將色彩限於灰、藍、綠和金，用十九世紀歐洲印象派的繪畫手法營造出一片風光，尤其與塞尚（Cézanne）畫聖維克多山（Mount Saint Victoire）的技法驚人地相似。塞尚和余友涵都渴望營造畫意，這在他們簡化的筆觸和精確的用色表露無遺，這些手法都是為了用較輕巧的細節來平衡山景的沈重感。塞尚善於表現和諧的色彩和線性的韻律，余友函則是用麝香綠過渡到檸檬綠的筆法橫跨《沂蒙山02》的圖像，用流暢的灰線逐一勾勒出綠油油的田野。余友涵在一九七三年畢業於北京中央工藝美術學院藝術設計專業。作為開創性的中國當代藝術家，余友涵在一九九三年代表中國參加威尼斯雙年展，在一九九四年也參加聖保羅雙年展（Sao Paulo Art Biennial）。他的藝術手法多元，創作過程也是他個人對於中國政治與社經情勢持續不斷的探索和回應。他涉略抽象和風景畫的實驗，並且是知名的政治波普先驅。政治波普是中國藝術家對於快速政經情勢變化做出回應的藝術運動。在漢斯-尤利希・歐布里斯特（Hans Ulrich Obrist）的採訪中，余友涵提到改變對他而言是很自然的事，他相信「如果外在世界改變了，藝術家應該也要對這些改變做出回應。」在二〇〇四年香格納畫廊畫展的畫冊中，余友涵談到政治波普作為一個工具是深受西方風格手法影響，他已結束這樣的階段性創作了，他說：「波普藝術就像長在中國土地上的西方樹木，就像用中國樹來繁殖西方樹一樣。我想做出像是在中國土壤中自然長出的中國樹一樣的藝術。」余友涵在六十多歲時畫出這件非凡的美景作品，這作品是他過渡到新藝術手法的原型，其中包含他不同的美學手法和回應社經的改變，具有多層次的意義，最終，一切指向藝術家深深根植於其中國文化獨一無二的語彙。