Huangshan And The Yellow River As “Light, Color And Shape”

Our friends at Beijing Today swing by now and then to introduce art and culture in the city.

In a war zone of artists vying for visitors’ attention, Yuan Zuo’s solo exhibition at 798 Art Bridge Gallery is a breath of fresh air.

Born in 1957, Yuan is a highly productive artist more concerned with his craft than fame. He graduated from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1981 and continued his studies abroad at the Massachusetts College of Arts under the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Through the works at “Light, Color and Space,” his new exhibition, Yuan shares numerous creations based on his tours of Huangshan and the Yellow River. His vibrant colors give a fresh impression of natural beauty.

Although his creations are made with foreign pigments and brush techniques, the way he describes the relationship between man and nature relies on line, color and light to convey a sense of emotion – the approach for which Chinese ink painting is most famous.

Many have called Yuan’s art an extension of impressionism, but Yuan rejects the classification.

“My trips to Huangshan changed me. She introduced me to the world of light, color, beauty and passion,” Yuan wrote in his foreword to the exhibition.

“Yuan Zuo shows a reverence for traditional Chinese painting and philosophy,” said Ni Jun, an artist and producer at CCTV-10.

Yuan’s past stateside exhibitions include “The Vision of China” in 1982, “Garden, Mountains, Confusion” in 2002, and “Rethinking Tradition” in 2011 at the Harvard Neighbors Art Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

He is currently a visiting professor at the Massachusetts College of Arts and assistant professor at the Tsinghua University College of Arts.