Huang Guanyu

signed in Chinese and dated 80.7, framed

Private Canadian Collection (acquired from the exhibition in 1987)
Harold Leventhal Collection*, America
Private Collection
Private Chinese Collection

*Harold Leventhal (1919-2005) was an internationally renowned music and movie producer

Canada, Toronto, John B. Aird Gallery, Contemporary Paintings from the People's Republic of China, 4-26 September, 1987

This work is generally in good condition. Some minor wear and handling marks around the edges. Under UV light: there is no evidence of restoration. Please note that it was not examined out of the frame.
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The Kites
Huang Guanyu

Born in 1940, Huang Guanyu is an important member of the Tongdairen ("Contemporaries") group." His education and creative career is very representative of his period. In 1964, Huang entered the interior design department of the Central Academy of Craft Art, where he was inspired by his teacher Wu Guanzhong to embark on an exploratory path apart from the artistic mainstream. He recalls this important period: "I was always striving to make oil painting accord with Chinese aesthetics. From the time of Fish God, Flower God, and July until the present, I have created oil paintings upon the foundation of Eastern aesthetics. When I graduated from the Affiliated High School in 1964, the Central Academy of Fine Arts was undergoing the Four Clean-ups Movement and stopped accepting new students. I was thus less influenced by Soviet and Academic painting styles. The instruction at the Central Academy of Craft Art was most focused on artistic medium. My training in high school gave me a very strong foundation in drawing and use of colour, which I was able to develop at the Academy. The difference between my personal style and the mainstream academic and Soviet styles was evident at the "Tongdairen" Oil Painting exhibition. Wang Huaiqing's and my paintings are evidently infused with Eastern aesthetics. After being suppressed for years during the Cultural Revolution, this new style was no doubt refreshing in the art world and invited a profusion of praise. The Kites (Lot 25) was a continuation of this artistic milieu and another of my attempts at oil painting with Eastern aesthetics."

Held in 1980, the "Tongdairen" Oil Paintings exhibition was the first group exhibition at the National Art Museum of China on art produced outside the official system. It showed the work of 15 young painters, and among them Huang Guanyu attracted widespread attention within China and abroad. This affirmed his conviction in his artistic exploration. In the same year he created the important painting The Kite, which reflects the profound influence of Wu Guanzhong's notions of "formal beauty" and "abstract beauty." The collage-like and insistently two-dimensional composition, ornamental use of colour, and incorporation of Chinese folk art were bold experiments that infused this work with a classical Eastern aesthetic flavour and made it far ahead of its time. Moreover, the painting also expressed the artist's wish for a better life. The composition is dominated by three typically Chinese swallow-shaped kites, which are themselves richly decorated with the traditional auspicious symbols of carps, bats, and butterflies. The young woman in a green scarf and holding a kite spool at the bottom right is based on an image of Huang's wife. The auspicious kites being released by the smiling woman into the sky seem to represent hope for happiness. In The Kites, there are already clear signs of Huang Guanyu's transition from figurative realism towards quasi-abstraction. When it was shown at the groundbreaking Modern Chinese Paintings exhibition in Toronto, The Kites received widespread attention and acclaim. It was purchased by a local collector immediately after the exhibition, and was later owned by the renowned American music and film producer Harold Leventhal. This art-historically crucial masterpiece has now returned to China.