Starting from the path of illustration of literary works and newspapers and magazines, Huang Yongyu created a large number of woodcut works with his infinite romantic mood and poetic meaning.
(Left) Huang Yongyu's Death of the Ape Man, 11.2 ×8 cm, print, 1947
(Right) Huang Yongyu, Frog at the Bottom of the Well, 20x15 cm, print, 1953
Huang Yongyu is extremely good at illustrating various literary stories, especially the large number of group illustrations created for children's literature such as fairy tales, fables, etc.
In 1948, Huang Yongyu, Zhang Zhengyu and Lu Zhiju traveled from Shanghai to Taiwan to compile a picture album, and then moved to Hong Kong by chance, staying in a small village in Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong, "Jiu Hua Trail". From 1948 to 1949, many mainland cultural figures lived here, including literary artists and painters friends whom Huang Yongyu knew in Shanghai.
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(Left) Huang Yongyu' "Taiwan Oxcart", 24.5 × 16.5 cm Print, 1948
(Right) Huang Yongyu, "Hong Kong Beings - Heavenly Landscape", 12x19.5 cm print, 1949
While in Hong Kong, Huang Yongyu also served as the art editor of The Kung Pao, continued to engage in woodcut creation and freelance writer, participated in the Human Painting Conference, and created a series of works on the life of the people of Hong Kong.
In this exhibition of "Entering the Wood - Huang Yongyu Printmaking Art Exhibition", the audience can enjoy the humorous and witty little people or animals under Huang Yongyu's carving knife: cunning foxes, frogs at the bottom of the well, ducklings in exile... Vivid and fun, but not the same as the embodiment of innocence in the children's world. This paradoxical combination of naïve taste and satirical reality gives Huang Yongyu's fairy tale illustrations a deeper form and meaning.
(Left) Huang Yongyu's Fate of the Monkey Kingdom, 12.5x18.5 cm print, 1949
(Top right left) Huang Yongyu, Rabbit, 13x12.8 cm Print, 1951
(Top right) Huang Yongyu, Snail, 12x13 cm print, 1951
(Bottom right) Huang Yongyu, "Duckling with the Title of Prince in Exile", 18.5x28 cm Print, 1953-1954
In the early 1950s, Huang Yongyu was invited back to Beijing to participate in the preparation of the printmaking department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Huang Yongyu, who was a young man, tried to find a deeper expression language in the creation and teaching of emerging printmaking:
He went deep into the Xiaoxing'anling Forest and created a large number of forest-based woodcuts with forest themes such as "Hello Deer", "First Into the Forest", and "New Voice"; he was sent to Rongbaozhai to learn traditional Chinese watermark woodcut techniques, met Qi Baishi, who was also in Beijing at that time, and carved a portrait of a watermark chromatic print; he also lived for two months in the village of Erquanyi in Lunan County, Yunnan Province, and created the classic "Ashima" image with the Village Yi Sani Women Pu Branch committee as a model.
(Left) Huang Yongyu, Qi Baishi, 24×34 cm, 1954 print
(Right) Huang Yongyu , Ashima , 25.5x12.9 cm , 1955 print
In the 1960s, Huang Yongyu continued to broaden the aesthetics and dimensions of China's emerging woodcuts, creating representative works such as "Spring Tide", "Flower City" and "Hulu Letter". His printmaking style gradually tended to return to a romantic aesthetic paradigm, which not only perfected and profoundly defined the form and connotation of China's emerging woodcuts, but also brought a new wind to the printmaking industry at that time.
Although Huang Yongyu stopped creating prints in his later years, the engraving knife in his hand prompted him to develop the habit of never slackening, and he tried to turn to the possibility of more artistic language.
(Top left) Huang Yongyu's Hulu Letter, 25.8 × 33.5 cm, 1961 print
(Bottom left) Huang Yongyu, Spring Tide, 40x55 cm, 1961 print
(Right) Huang Yongyu, "Flower City", 22x69 cm, 1960 print
Today, this ninety-eight-year-old man has experienced the suffering of the old society, the separation of the Beacon Era, the birth of a new world, and the tortuous and plain journey. Like carving wood, Huang Yongyu practices his own unique artistic aesthetic and creative practice step by step.
Into the wood - Huang Yongyu printmaking art exhibition
Related exhibitions
Sponsored by the China Art Palace (Shanghai Art Museum) and the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts, the "Entering the Wood - Huang Yongyu Printmaking Art Exhibition" is being exhibited at the China Art Palace. The exhibition opens with Huang Yongyu's first-person narration, "Notes on Experiences" written by the artist himself as he recalls his 1980 printmaking career, connecting nearly 200 prints from the 1940s to the 1990s.
Exhibition venue: 33-meter floor exhibition hall