Huang Yuxing (b.1975)
Christmas Eve(Painted in 2011)
Acrylic on canvas
175 × 275 cm. 68 7/8 × 108 1/4 in.
Signed in English and dated on the reverse
The Streams Shine Forever, the Dreams Spark in the Night
The Spiritual Place of Christmas Eve, the Monumental Creation of Huang Yuxing
Huang Yuxing was born in Beijing in the 1970s and graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He is the most high-profile representative of his generation in the contemporary Chinese art scene. With colourful futurism characters, his creations build a utopian world above the reality of his age. His works interpret the time of visual carnival, urbanization, and great social change, to penetrate the young generation's relationship with the city, the future, and the thinking of life and time, which are highly sought after by collectors.
A Fluorescent Christmas, a Surreal Reconstruction of Man and Nature
In Huang's context of creation, the pioneering use of fluorescent colours is the most critical turning point. Dating back to his long-distance trip to the Himalayas in 2009, he was suddenly enlightened in the strong sunlight in the plateau. To transform such powerful visual and psychological feelings into his works, fluorescence has been involved in his paintings since then, becoming Huang's iconic art character. At the same time, he also integrates the inspiration of nature, the experience of life, and the feelings in the urbanization process into his creation, reconstructing the vast field of man and nature, and using the Light and Habitat series to create a unique interpretation of the world.
Completed in 2011, Christmas Eve, is an important representation of the series. It integrates multiple classic elements of him, such as trees, light, and geometric structures, marking the milestone of the large-scale monumental works of Huang.
The Melting Colour, the Surging Light
Different from the direct description of the beams in the Light series, Christmas Eve blends the colours such as emerald green, sapphire blue, pink purple, orange, with the fluorescent paint that represents the light, flowing around the woods, rivers, clouds, steps, and the surface of buildings. A radiant Christmas tree is in the centre of the painting, attracting views from every perspective. The flickering ball on the top is the focus, like fireworks, extending light infinitely from the centre to the surrounding, bursting and penetrating.
When creating, Huang often spreads the thin acrylic colours on the canvas repeatedly, reminding people of the "fine brushwork and heavy colour" technique in traditional Chinese ink painting. The layers of fluorescent colours with different gamuts reflect each other, mapping a surreal space. The artist fulfills a heavy texture into the buildings with overlapping strokes, showing the neatness and coldness of concrete and steel. The contrast of light and shadow is also distinctive. When the shrubs flow into the front and back backgrounds, the colours turn into a smudge of random blending, showing a penetrating essence. Outside the dazzling Christmas square, it creates a divided yet unified vision of the natural landscape and industrial culture. In this way, the artist intends to reflect the contrasting and colourful world in the context of the time. The Christmas tree between nature and humanity lights up the entire city in silence.
The Metaphor of the Geometric Shapes, the Energy of the Macroworld
Since 2011, Huang has been focusing on the exploration of the "world image", naming paintings after places, and constructing surreal fields from clear and intuitive geometric figures. In the split and reorganization of structures, he wanders between reality and fantasy. As a classic representative of this period, Christmas Eve has circular arcs, staggered squares, and strip-shaped stairs, building a tightly knit and wonderful architectural structure. The overlapping geometric spaces enhance the magical atmosphere in the painting. The sunken square in the centre is like a black hole, in which red and blue colours collide and emerge. It seems to extend to a world in another dimension, with unknown variables hidden, encouraging the viewers to spontaneously explore the various connections between the world in the painting and the reality.
Huang further placed the Christmas square in the vast natural background. Echoing with the forest in the background, the Christmas tree is a metaphor for “upward lives”. The Christmas tree was born in nature yet has a different fate from those in the forest. The colourful lights on the tree deprive the “nature” part of it and fill the divinity into it, adding a symbolic meaning of happiness and reunion belonging to the human society. In this eternal space with vitality, civilization and nature blend, coldness and warmth coexist, and the real macroworld echoes. It becomes an ideal spiritual highland for Huang to build novelty and dreams.
“All are past and gone! For truly great person. Look to this age alone.”
――Mao Zedong
According to The Book of Song, Zong Que, a general of the Liu Song Dynasty, was bold at a young age. When his uncle asked him what he wanted to do in the future, he replied: "To ride the long wind and break the waves!" In the art scene from the 20th century to the present, the aspiration of "breaking the wave" has become the spiritual portrayal of many artists rewriting history and creating new patterns. For example, Yoshitomo Nara, a giant of Japanese contemporary art, created a rich image language that transcends the "Superflat". His universal visual language is with the innocence in childhood, the sensibility in adolescence and the rebellious rock spirit. Zhang Xiaogang, a leading artist in contemporary China, depicts the national aesthetics that belongs to a generation with the eternal Big Family faces, reflecting the close connection between individual and social collectives. George Condo, the representative of postwar American artists, fuses classical portrait, Surrealism and Cubism in art history into his "Psychological Cubism", redefining the direction of European and American painting after the 1980s. These artists, born in Generation X and Y, have broken the boundaries between ancient and modern, Eastern and Western, to reach the top of the wave of contemporary art, becoming the masters of this generation.
This autumn, we will present the representative works of 12 important Eastern and Western artists leading the art trend and daring to be pioneers with the theme "Breaking the Wave". From Nara's O.T(Untitled) to the western genius Condo Muse of Volcano; from street art leaders Banksy, Kenny Scharf's wit and creativity to the representatives of Chinese contemporary -Zhang Xiaogang, Huang Yuxing, Wang Guangle, Zhao Zhao, Qin Qi and Zhang Yingnan; as well as Japanese artist Tetsuya Ishida's iconic character who strives to break out of the social system, up-and-coming artist Yuichi Hirako and his vibrant little tree man. "One day, I'll ride the long wind, break the waves." Let's feel their interpretation of our time and their indomitable appealing artistic presence!
黃宇興 (b.1975)
平安夜(二〇一一年作)
壓克力彩 畫布
175 × 275 cm. 68 7/8 × 108 1/4 in.
款識
Huang Yuxing 2011（畫背）
流光永駐，奔赴星辰大海
黃宇興豐碑鉅構《平安夜》的精神之地
「對我來說，我作品中帶有色彩和情感的那些形狀是深沉且觸動人心的。你所感覺到的神秘是來自對真相的不完全認知，但它會吸引你去尋找真相，這使我的作品更具魅力。」
―― 黃宇興
生於北京、畢業於中央美術學院的黃宇興，為現今中國當代藝壇最受矚目的70後藝術家代表。其作以帶有未來主義色彩的繽紛語彙，將來自其成長時代的圖像景觀、視覺狂歡、城市化社會變遷的種種現象，構建為一個凌駕於真實之上的烏托邦。與同代藝術家對意識形態的理念性表達不同，他力求打破圖像的單一性，藉由對色彩的直觀感知力，在層層湧動的螢光絢彩中，呈現豐富的象徵特質、空間的場域力量和變動中的生命之境，以此深入年輕一代關乎城市、未來、時間的生命思辨，營造出強烈的精神共鳴，深獲藏家追捧。
螢彩聖誕，重構人與自然的超現實宏景
從2005年早期的「日誌」創作中，挪用圖像素材化為個體生命的書寫，到「改變中的生命史」探尋文明、歷史與人類發展的關聯，至2010年的「光芒和棲息地」系列對自然和人文景象的宏觀重構，黃宇興始終自人的視角出發，置身於生命的宏景敘事，以漸進的姿態提煉最為鮮明的表達。在其創作脈絡中，螢光色彩的開拓性使用，為最具關鍵性的創作轉折。此可追溯自2009年他在一次赴喜馬拉雅的長途旅行中，高原地區強烈的日照令他豁然開朗，為把這樣的強大視覺及心理感受轉化於作品之上，螢光彩自此介入其畫作，成為黃宇興藝術的標誌性語彙。而與此同時，他亦將對自然的啟示、生活的閱歷、成長於城市化進程中的體會融入創作思考，「『我』私密的一面隱退到了背後，換以開闊的感情和空間體驗。」他在畫布上重新構建著人與自然的廣闊場域，以「光芒和棲息地」系列對世界作出獨我的詮釋。
完成於2011年的《平安夜》，即為該系列的重要表徵，集合樹叢、光芒、幾何結構等多重經典元素，為黃宇興具階段性代表的大尺幅豐碑之作。藉聖誕前夜的主題，他在這片詩意之地，融合對自然、人文景觀的超現實描繪，以形式的新創、幾何型態的空間張力，大面積滲入重彩螢光，釋放生命的訊號。作為畫中世界的光輝至高點，左中區的聖誕樹照亮了整片森林和建築場，廣納天地奇境，展現平安夜之時，萬籟俱寂、林深水潺，唯有璀璨的聖誕燈光折射繽紛，展現一幕盎然璀璨的盛景，展開現實與想像的雙重探索，映射藝術家對想像與現實交織的宏觀世界寫照。
色彩的熔爐，光芒的穿梭湧動
「螢光色是我們這個時代特有的顏色，它有一種特別的意味，像是一種被濃縮或者是激發出來的那種生命力，是我所需要的那個顏色，也是我需要的那個感受。」
――黃宇興
不同於「光芒」系列中對道道光束的直接描寫，《平安夜》以潤物細無聲般的鋪色筆觸，令代表光芒的螢彩，與翠綠、寶藍、粉紫、橘黃等天地色相融、交織，遊走於樹林、河流、霞光、台階、建築物的表面，湧動無限生機。流光溢彩的聖誕樹作為視覺核心，以光暈閃爍的頂球為焦點，猶如煙火照明之瞬，自中央向四周無限漫延，迸發強烈的穿透力。
創作時，黃宇興常將通透的壓克力薄彩一遍遍鋪展於畫布，帶有傳統「工筆重彩」的意味，層層疊疊、不同色域的明快螢彩互相輝映，如有光芒蘊藏其中，亦幻亦真，映射出一個超現實的次元空間。而畫中代表城市的建築物，以道道疊壓之筆營造出厚重的質感，展現如鋼筋水泥的工整冷峻，而光影亦在其中涇渭分明，跟隨線條塊面構成陰陽向背。而與人工建築的堅實筆觸形成強烈對比的，是覆蓋於前後景的自然灌木叢林，色彩在其中化為恣意交融的暈染，光線並非僅於表面流動，而呈現具穿透感的本質，無聲映射天地，並圍裹著光色奪目的聖誕廣場，創造出自然景觀和工業人文間既分裂又統一的視覺場景。藝術家藉此，意在折射時代語境下形塑一個對立卻又絢麗多彩的世界景象，介於自然和人文間的聖誕樹，在靜默中燃亮整個埸城，帶著一絲獨特的浪漫，創造出「靜故了群動，空故納萬境」的時空之象。
幾何隱喻，宏觀世界的能量
而自2011年起，黃宇興為著墨於世界之相的探尋，以《棲息地》一作開始逐步構建烏托邦式的空間，並以戲劇化的場所命名畫作，如《執法者俱樂部》、《領獎台》、《鬥獸場》等，皆以鮮明直觀的幾何圖形構建一處處超現實場域，在結構的拆分和重組中，遊走於現實與虛幻之間。《平安夜》作為此時期的經典代表，以環狀的弧形、高低錯落的方形和條狀的階梯，搭建起連綿不盡、嚴絲密合的奇妙建築結構。層層套迭的幾何空間強化了畫面中的魔幻氣息，產生強大的視覺張力。與高高聳立的聖誕樹形成對比，中央的下沈式廣場則如宇宙黑洞般，紅藍彩在其中衝撞湧現，它彷彿可延伸至另一個維度的世界，若包含無數瞬間的變數，潛藏著未知的巨大能量，令觀者在想像中自發探尋著畫中世界的種種關聯。
而作品更進一步將聖誕廣場置於廣袤的自然背景，圓錐形的聖誕樹在開闊的平台中一覽眾小，與背景的萬木叢林形成呼應，暗喻著「生命向上」的生長姿態。而聖誕樹與身後的高大林木雖形如一體，亦截然不同，高大的林木具來自自然本源的欣欣向榮，而聖誕樹本生於自然，卻在人類社會具強烈的象徵意義。經由彩燈的包裹，它如神樹般光芒璀璨，代表「團圓與歡慶」的特殊意義。文明與自然在此交融，在這一處具生命力的永恆空間中，幸福與未知並存，冷峻和溫情共生，現實的宏觀世界在其中迴響，亦成為黃宇興構建無限新奇、奔赴星辰大海的理想精神高地。
「俱往矣，數風流人物，還看今朝！」
――毛澤東
《宋書 ·宗愨列傳》中曾記載道，南朝宋鼎鼎大名的振武將軍宗愨，年少之時便膽識、謀略兼具，練就一身好武藝，其性格不受拘束，叔父問他將來的志向，他答：「願乘長風，破萬里浪！」豪言一出，引人驚嘆，此般意氣風發之姿，一掃彼時的隱士風氣，以振興社稷為志，堪為俊傑之才！而在二十世紀至今的藝術舞台上，「乘風破浪」之志，更成為眾多藝術家改寫歷史、創造嶄新格局的精神寫照。如日本當代藝術巨擘奈良美智以其超越「扁平化」、內蘊豐富的圖象語言，將童年回憶的純真、青春期的感性、奮鬥不息、反叛的搖滾精神，開創了一種跨越文化隔閡、全世界共通的視覺語言引發強烈的共嗚；中國當代領軍人物張曉剛，在老照片般永恆的「大家庭」面容中，書寫著獨屬於一代人的民族美學，折射出個人命運和社會集體的緊密相連；而美國戰後藝術家代表喬治 · 康多（George Condo）則以貫通藝術史中的古典肖像、超現實、立體主義的多元符碼，熔冶為具多面精神性表露的「心理立體主義」，重新定義了80年代後的歐美繪畫走向。
這些出生於X世代、Y世代的藝術家，以全球語境下海納百川的思想，破除古今文化、中西地域之界限，走向當代藝術的浪潮之巔。他們以或詼諧暗喻、或深邃動人的新風，引領著大膽創新、不拘一格的形式表達，不斷超越自我、打破認知局限，成為時代之言的主宰。
今秋，我們特別以「破浪」為專題，帶來東西方12位引領藝術風潮、敢為人先的重要藝術家之代表作。以奈良美智殿堂級珍稀全身女孩像《O.T(無題)》拉開序幕，進而細賞西方鬼才康多致敬達利（Salvador Dalí）的經典繆斯之像、街頭藝術領袖班克斯（Banksy）、肯尼 ·沙夫（Kenny Scharf）的風趣創意；再者，品味中國當代藝術的先鋒代表――張曉剛、黃宇興、王光樂、趙趙、秦琦、張英楠各擅勝場的獨我之寫，以及日本藝術家石田徹也那奮力跳脫窠臼的少年人、後起之秀平子雄一的活力小樹人。感受他們演繹著時代下，「長風破浪會有時，直挂雲帆濟滄海」那一往無前的動人藝術風采！
