Shanghai artist Yu Zhongbao solo exhibition showing at Nanjing museum

"The Boundless Earth Lies Beneath the Endless Sky," a solo exhibition by veteran Shanghai artist Yu Zhongbao, is showing at the Jinling Art Museum in Nanjing, neighboring Jiangsu Province, through December 8.

Yu, a renowned oil painter who rose to early fame through his depiction of Tibetan landscape, people, and old Shanghai scenes, gives viewers a strong visual impact with his latest creations.

The exhibition features nearly 50 of Yu's recent canvases focusing on China's natural scenery, a subject usually reflected by Chinese ink-wash painters. Yu has an ambition to embody the "vividness and rhythm" of traditional ink-wash paintings with his own interpretation towards impressionism reflected in his canvases.

Born in Shanghai in 1962, Yu showed his early interest in painting as a child. However, it was the exhibition of "The 19th Century French Rural Landscape Paintings" held in 1977 at Shanghai Art Museum that had a seminal influence on the then-15-year-old.

"It was such a great visual shock to me, as if I was guided into a new world," Yu said.

A graduate of the Oil Painting Department at East China Normal University, Yu witnessed the development of Western modern and contemporary art that swept the country during his campus days.

When some of his peers were experimenting with avant-garde concepts and new media, Yu was enamored in mastering Western oil painting techniques for the depiction of Chinese subjects via the spirit of traditional Chinese paintings.

"For me, the aesthetic beauty wafted over the painting is quite critical," he said. "I try to use the expression of rhyme in my creation for a feel of grandeur. I wanted to explore the second and third dimensions on canvas to the extreme, so that my paintings might break up the traditional visual language."

Stamped with his own unique art signature, Yu won the first prize of the International Art Exhibition in the 1980s, and his works are collected by the Armidale Art Museum in Australia. As one of the earliest crossover artists in China, he also cooperated with Shanghai General Motors on car painting in 2001. In 2020, one of Yu's paintings was shown at the 135th International Salon des Artistes Indépendants, Grand Palais, in Paris.

On closer inspection, viewers might find "a glow of light" in his tableau under a cold-toned backdrop.

"Such a beam of light reveals the passion and warmth deep in his heart towards art and life," said Liu Chunjie, director of the Jinling Art Museum.

"Yu's paintings are filled with a humanistic touch," said Li Lei, vice-chairman of the Shanghai Artists Association. "His practice on canvas shows how Chinese oil paintings could embark on the international art stage with its own characteristics."

If you go:

Date: Through Dec 8 (closed on Mondays), 9am–5pm

Venue: Jinling Art Museum

Admission: Free

Address: 50 Jianzixiang, Qinhuai District, Nanjing

南京市秦淮区剪子巷50号