JP/19/CARLA
Bali in the paintings by Yu Xiao Fu
Carla Bianpoen Contributor/Jakarta
Chinese modern and contemporary art has been taking the art world by storm since China's remarkable transformation to a diverse market economy in the past few decades.
Names like Gu Wenda, Wang Guangyi, Zhang Xiaogang, Fang Lijiun and Yue Mingjun are now household names, their art surpassing any expectations that one may have had before, and reverberating in Indonesia since the early years of the new millennium.
But quite different is the art of Yu Xiao Fu, which will be shown from Sept. 6 on, in a three-day exhibition at the Mercantile Club. Reminiscent of a juxtaposition of Western modern art styles, one would recognize in his works features attributed to expressionism, impressionism, cubism, the abstract and the surrealistic.
This may come as a surprise, since the 55-year-old Yu is only five years older than the renowned contemporary installation "hair-artist" Gu Wenda, who now resides in New York.
There is a ten-year difference with his younger colleagues, whose art styles became known as Political Pop and Cynical Realism.
According to Indonesian curator and art critic Agus Dermawan, Yu Xiao Fu's style emerged as a reaction to their newly acquired freedom at the time.
Yu Xiao Fu did not wish to go with the flow. It must not be forgotten that Yu, who is a graduate of the visual arts department of the Shanghai Drama Institute in Shanghai, a city said to be the gateway through which Western art was introduced, has remained there as a teacher who is now serving as the dean of his alma mater.
Yu Xiao Fu has kept to painting with oil on canvas. He won the Art Prize of the Shanghai Fine Arts Exhibition on show at the Shanghai Art Museum in 2001.
The exhibition of 40 paintings is titled "The Philosopher, Thinking on the Canvas."
It is inspired by the island where dozens of foreign artists have been before. Like them, Yu Xiao Fu has been touched by Bali's atmosphere where even simple everyday themes appear to be special, mingling with meandering memories of countries he once visited.
Yu's Bali has, therefore, a touch of China, Russia and Europe, says Dermawan noting Yu's Rembrandt-like palette.
Yu's excellent technical skills are matched by an imagination that blends reality with the illusionary. This includes a painting depicting Affandi and Picasso in a becak in Bali (where these three-wheeled vehicles are nonexistent).
Yu Xiao Fu, said to be one of the ten greats in oil painting in China, came to Indonesia at the invitation of art collector Rudy Akili, who urged him to paint Bali. The exhibition will be opened by another art collector, Deddy Kusuma.
The Philosopher, Thinking on the Canvas Solo exhibition of 40 paintings by Yu Xiao Fu Mercantile Club, BCA Building, 18th Fl, Jl. Sudirman kav. 22-23, Jakarta Until Sept. 8
Opening cocktail and dinner attended by the artist September 6, at 6:30 p.m. (open to the public) Contact: Rosna 0811133821, Lusi 08161919546 or 352 3133, 231 0001