Born in the year 1954 at a town called Xiamen in China Huang Yong Ping comes to be one of the most respected artists of his age. He is a famous artist in china but lives and works in French doing contemporary art. As a self-taught student, he learned his mastery of art through other established artists. He drew most of his lessons from well-established artists like the American music theorist John Cage, German artist Joseph and a French man Marcel, who was also an artist. Huang Yong Ping was among the first artists to take art as a strategy. In the year 1982, he graduated from CAFA immediately formed the Xiamen dada. When he was around 33 years, he went to an exhibition in Paris. After a trip to France, he loved the country and later on moved to France where he resides to date. As an artist, most people say that his works can be put into four significant periods. The periods are namely the anti-art period, the anti-self-expression, the anti-artistic expression and the anti-history period. The group Xiamen Dada that he formed was aimed anti giving art that is not related to modernism. In the year 1986, their works were mostly viewed as modern characterized by the use of modern styles and objects. The thought of this angered the group, and they ended up burning most of their works in public (Eduard 2011 p 117). The artist stated that the act was an act of self-liberation. Melisa (1996 p 57) says that Huang Yong Ping after burning the artworks said that, “until art is destroyed, life is never peaceful.” The government barred the group from holding public shows after burning their art in public. Huang Yong Pings works had a mix of cultures in the. Having originated from china some of his works had Chinese philosophies as well as western theories. It is seen from the works of groups like Xiamen Dada and Chan Buddhism. Chan had in it the west culture while the Dada carried most of the western philosophies. Both the theories talked about the impossible reality of reality itself. The influence of cross cultures is shown in some of his works like two minutes in the washing machine and the book washing project. The artist has done a number of solo exhibitions and a number of group exhibitions too Gladstone (2014). Some of his solo exhibitions include circus in New York, frolic the curve in London and “Huang Yong Ping” in England. His solo exhibitions took place between the 1990 to date while the group exhibitions took place from 1986 to current day. Over the year, he has built his name in the art industry by giving controversial pieces and holding exhibitions all over the world. The exhibitions held in his name have made some of his works to be hard to auction. In his anti-art and anti-history period the artist tries to bridge the gap between traditional art and modern art. Art from the east mostly Asian countries is considered as traditional while art from the west is taken as modern art. Through the project “a concise history of modern art after two minutes in the washing machine”, Huang Yong Ping tries to bring his point home. In the project, he takes two books, one by a Chinese writer and the other by an American writer and puts the book in a washing machine for two minutes. What comes out is pulp that he uses a wooden box to put it on display. The aim was to show that the difference between the two groups can be bridged. The product that come out represented breaking the gap and bringing the two together. During this time, he was viewed as a radical artist who wanted so much to break the differences between western and eastern traditional artists. In the anti-self-period, Huang Yong Ping generated a series of projects he named the roulette. He carried out the project of the roulette series between 1984 and 1989. The work included roulettes of up to six tables put together. During this time, most of the works he created were not centered on his view of thing but the world view. Most of the finished works in the series consisted of mostly the roulette and the dice. Through the piece, Huang Yong Ping portrays the concept that destiny is definite and does not come by chance or luck. At this time in his career, he deviated from the norm of his work because most of the pieces had external influences rather than his ideas (Martina 2003 p 53). Most of the works of this period were influenced by the German artist Marcel, who through his philosophy and the work on the roulettes looked more like what Marcel had earlier created. After the creation of the work Huang Yong Ping said, “The work of art is bigger than thought.” He also said that the works were as an influence of the eastern spirit. Through these pieces, he is seen to borrow from the western culture and the eastern culture a fact that emphasizes on his point to bridge the gap between the west and eastern works of art. In November 2002, he embarked on a project called the bat project two. It was first shown at the museum of art in Guangdong. The project was a continuation of the bat project one in 2001. The project was a remodel of the American EP-3 plane that had collided with a Chinese fighter plane killing its pilot. It showed the cockpit of the aircraft and its left side filled with preserved bats. He did the project to address the issues of the day which was why the American plan was found in China’s airspace. He did the project to show China’s growth into being a super power (Philippe 2005 p 107). He also did the project so that the issue at hand was brought to the public understanding. Through the project, he shows the constant fall of the monopoly of power. In western culture, bats are seen as a symbol on bad omen but in the eastern culture they are viewed as signs of progress. The bats in the cockpit showed the progress china was making to the point an American plane would be found in its airspace without authorization. They also symbolized the bad omen that come to the United States as a result of the crash. He continues to merge the western and eastern artwork by the use of bats in the cockpit. Huang has grown to be a remarkable artist who through his art he tackles issues in society. He has moved away from the ancient representation of the work to pieces that make one think beyond the painting or piece of work.
Works cited
Davis, Edward L. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture. London: Routledge, 2005. Print.
Glad stone gallery http://gladstonegallery.com/artist/huang-yong-ping/biography
Huang, Yong P, and Philippe Vergne. House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective. Minneapolis, Minn: Walker Art Center, 2005. Print.
Köppel-Yang, Martina. Semiotic Warfare: A Semiotic Analysis, the Chinese Avant-Garde, 1979- 1989. Hong Kong: Timezone 8, 2003. Print.
Melissa, Chiu. Huang Yongping. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Print.
