|
Yu Youhan, <Untitled>, Acrylic on canvas, 156x115cm, 1994
[China] Yu Youhan Untitled
In Yu Youhan’s painting of the abstract began in the mid-1980s, the “circle” in his image symbolize the multiple forms and self-regulated harmony of the dynamic world. The line techniques of ink painting, color blocks and infinite dots become pure aesthetic enjoyments in different orders and combinations. In the 1990s, Yu has participated in the wave of Political Pop, whose unique style in depicting the portrait of Mao showed playful contention to official ideology. Untitled, Mao seemed to have placed behind layers and layers of frames, that deconstructs and reconstructs the varying environment of a tumultuous period of history. As shown on the image, Yu has adopted an aesthetic methodology that has integrated and overthrown the seemingly dominant visual traditions, while lucidly portraying the political propaganda and social reality at the time. However, this was one of his “momentary exit” – soon after, he returned to making landscape paintings and abstraction, like his “circle”, in constant cycle, that marked the beginning and the end. |
