Today, Mr. Yu Deyao, a Chinese Indonesian entrepreneur, art philanthropist and collector, died of illness. Founded in Shanghai in 2014, the Yuz Museum of Art is one of the most forward-looking private art museums in the history of Chinese contemporary art, and he strongly supports the lending of international professional art institutions to enhance the public's understanding and appreciation of Chinese contemporary art.
Before his death, he once said: As a patriotic overseas Chinese, with my sincere heart, I hope that this art museum will continue, and I hope that my collection can remain in China forever.
In 2016,
Xinmin Evening News once conducted an exclusive interview with Mr. Yu Deyao,
It was Mr. Yu Deyao's unforgettable friend before his death
Dr. Yin Hao of Changzheng Hospital facilitated the interview.
The "ambition" of a private art museum
The 2016 West Bund Art and Design Fair and the Shanghai Art Biennale opened one after another, adding a fire to contemporary art in the increasingly cool Shanghai.
Located in the "West Bund Culture and Art Demonstration Zone", insisting on promoting contemporary art that "cannot be understood", Yu Deyao (Art Museum) has rapidly established a reputation in just over two years with a kind of "self-sufficiency" existence and persistence. "As a rather 'authoritarian' collector, I have the privilege of collecting the 'History of Chinese Contemporary Art', but from another point of view, this is another regrettable thing." At the recent VIP preview of andy Warhol: Shadows, Yuz Museum founder of the Yuz Museum and an overseas Chinese in Indonesia, was interviewed by the National Art Magazine.
Art comes from the experience of life
Champagne, fine food, waiters wearing exaggerated 1970s-80s-style dummies, and improvised spotlights with disco feels, in honor of Warhol, the first floor of the Yuz Museum on the day of the VIP preview recreates the scene when Shadow first appeared in public view in 1978. However, the immortal work, hailed as a "monument to impermanence", is completely different from the stereotype left by the "King of Pop" to the public, leaving aside the pomp and exaggeration of fashion, this special work finally restores and the seriousness and heaviness of Andy as a thinker.
The 102 works are arranged continuously, covering four walls, and in them, an endless aura surrounds them, and the pictures composed of large areas of black and different volumes and different high-saturation colors seem to be empty, and they seem to be the shadows of something, creating a complex and ideological mood.
"I was shocked to see Shadow for the first time at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., where 102 works were on display." Yu Recalled. Some people think that this group of works implies that art itself is a reproduction of mutual imitation, overlap, and even encounter, but for Yu Deyao, this sense of encounter between illusion and reality transcends art and makes him seem similar.
Yu Deyao is not afraid to talk about the major illness he has experienced for more than a year: "I am sure that when I was seriously ill, I also saw such a shadow in front of my eyes. Warhol had experienced a shooting, and doctors had even declared Warhol clinically dead. Although the artist did not explain the motivation for the creation of Shadow, I saw some connection in it. ”
In fact, "Shadow" is indeed a very important and very special work of Warhol, which has been exhibited in Hirshhorn, los Angeles Museum of Modern Art, Paris Museum of Modern Art, and the Guggenheim Museum of Art in Spain, and now, with the efforts of Yu Deyao, it has come to Shanghai.
In 2015, Jessica Morgan, director of the Dia Art Foundation in New York, invited Yu to a luncheon, and Shadow is one of the foundation's core collections. "Can I borrow 'Shadow' to exhibit at the Yuz Museum?" After about two minutes, Jessica agreed to Yu's request.
"It was also because of what we had been doing in Shanghai that Jessica immediately agreed." Yu Deyao said.
Sitting on thousands of Chinese and international contemporary art collections, Yu Deyao, who entered the top ten of Art & Auction's global art Power100 as the only Chinese, and was on the world's most authoritative art list art list Art Review Power 100 in 2012, is obviously an important reason for the museum's compelling force. It is his connections in the art circle that allow the Yuz Museum to continue to "easily" cooperate with world-renowned art institutions. What has made the Yuz Museum of Art establish its reputation in one fell swoop cannot fail to mention Giacometti's first large-scale retrospective exhibition held this year in China.
In June 2014, In Basel, Yu met Catherine Grenier, head of the Giacometti Foundation, whom he had known for many years. When Greniel talked about the hope of doing a big project in Asia, although it was only a short time before the opening of the Yuz Museum, out of trust in Yu, the two sides agreed on a preliminary plan. Then, during the two-year period of negotiation and preparation, the exhibition specifications continued to rise, and the number of works on display increased from 100 to 150 and 200, and finally about 250 works were established for public display, focusing on the face of Giacometti's entire artistic career. The art museum strictly implemented all the requirements put forward by the French side for the exhibition venue and the installation of the exhibition, and yu deyao spent nearly one million yuan only for the lighting of the exhibition area on the ground floor. But it is precisely under this kind of excellence that this high-quality exhibition not only enhances the hardware facilities as a professional art museum, but also makes the team of the art museum move from youth to maturity.
The Yuz Museum of Art held a retrospective exhibition of Giacometti
On May 15, 2016, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong and French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development Laurent Fabius witnessed the signing ceremony of Giacometti's solo retrospective exhibition, which upgraded the exhibition to a "state-to-state cultural exchange event", which is also the highest standard of art exchange activities between countries, and for the first time settled in a private art museum in China.
The exhibition promotes multi-party exchanges
Many of the world's public art galleries were formerly private art galleries, such as moMA (Museum of Modern Art in New York) or the Guggenheim Museum. This is also the benchmark that Yu Deyao set at the beginning: "At least, I want to lay a good foundation that I can lay in this life." ”
On May 18, 2014, the Yuz Museum opened. Prior to this, Yu had founded the first private art museum in his hometown of Jakarta, which he had named after himself, and now, due to his health, he has closed the museum and sold his main business in Jakarta. "As a son-in-law in Shanghai, I have not invested in Shanghai for twenty years, the art museum is my only business, and the Yuz Museum will never take the commercial route." Yu Deyao said.
Around 2004, Yu Deyao began to collect Chinese art, the original intention, from the Indonesian social turmoil brought to Yu Deyao's tribulations, as an overseas Chinese, he hopes to see the inheritance and embodiment of Chinese culture in Indonesia, hope to bring Chinese elements into Indonesian society through art, but also to his collection to the public.
"Rain House" makes young people in Shanghai feel the charm of international contemporary art works
Yu is fascinated by installation art, and he feels that this strong and intuitive art, integrated into various theories of sociology, art, anthropology and psychology, involves issues beyond the discussion of art forms and aesthetics. However, the transportation and maintenance costs of these devices are high, the degree of circulation is not high, and the interest and courage of collectors are tested.
In addition to installation art, Yu's other collection focuses on contemporary art from the 1980s and 1990s. In his view, the works of this period are the most valuable creations of the first generation of Chinese contemporary art. His collection includes works by well-known artists such as Zeng Fanzhi, Wang Guangyi, Liu Wei, Ding Yi, Zhang Enli and so on. In 2010, Zhang Xiaogang's 1992 creation of Genesis: The Birth of a Republic No. 2, which won 6.69 million US dollars, became a symbol of Yu's emergence in the contemporary art collection industry.
"I am Chinese, and I want this work to stay in China." What I want to sort out is the historical context of the development of Chinese contemporary art, so they should be works that can leave their mark on the album of art history in the era in which they live. Of course, I will also selectively collect international contemporary art works that can dialogue with Chinese contemporary art. Yu explained.
Before Shadow, a group exhibition called OVERPOP (Above Pop) was launched after the Giacometti retrospective. "In fact, the work 'Shadow' was first decided, and then the exhibition 'Above Pop' was designed." Yu Deyao said. One of the curators, Karen Smith, as an expert who has worked in the field of Chinese contemporary art for nearly 20 years, has expanded the concept of curation and added the younger Chinese contemporary artists to the framework of dialogue. The most important thing is always the finale, such a setting, highlighting the status of "Shadow", but also allowing some of the young artists in "Above Pop" to reach a certain degree of communication with the master.
The curatorial process of the two exhibitions "Shadow" and "Above The Pope" reflects Yu Deyao's consistent attitude: let the past and the present, let the East and the West engage in dialogue.
"In foreign countries, academia is always ahead of the market. Art museums will be very patient and systematic to cultivate potential young artists, but in China, the market is far ahead of academia, resulting in young artists being 'spoiled', in the environment of quick success, it is difficult for artists to precipitate. ”
"Traditional Chinese art is of course classic, good. But isn't that why we don't need contemporary art? I believe that Chinese contemporary art does not conflict with tradition, it is an art that inherits the past and the future, China's contemporary culture must be erected, and what needs to be respected is not only China's history, but also China's present. As a searcher dedicated to exploring new areas of art, Yu admitted that he was also bittersweet: "I have the privilege of collecting the 'History of Chinese Contemporary Art', but this is because no art museum in China can now shoulder the responsibility of combing through the artistic flow in China since the 1980s." ”
In 2007, Yuz Foundation, a non-profit art foundation, was established to promote the growth of contemporary artists and promote the development of contemporary art through collections, art museum activities, sponsorship projects and academic projects, thereby creating a platform for exchange of contemporary art in the West and Asia.
"Although there is an advisory board, I am still more 'authoritarian' in terms of collection." Collecting but not hiding' is also my philosophy, we are the patrons of art, but also the protectors of art, the life of art is longer than ours. "Over the years, Yu has donated a number of Chinese contemporary art works to the Pompidou Art Centre in France, the Museum of Fine Arts in Brooklyn in the United States, and the Singapore Art Museum, and has continued to help many institutions at home and abroad, including Britain and France, to do relevant exhibitions by lending exhibits." I think this is what an art fund should do, and as a party involved in the international art scene, we have an obligation to bring the works of top Chinese contemporary artists into the collection system of respected museums in the West. ”
Although he sometimes felt lonely, Yu Deyao was still stubbornly running and shouting. "I'm collecting a piece of history now, and I'm also guessing whether these works of art can occupy a place in art history in the future; whether what I'm doing can help move history needs to be judged by future generations." It doesn't matter if I become a wild history, at least I'm doing it. But maybe it would be better if I could have five or ten of these at the same time working together. ”
Author: Wu Nanyao (Xinmin Evening News, Luminous Cup)
Editor: Tang Mengye