The casual peaceful times seen in daily life are always fixed by the works of the oil painter Wang Yuping, the use of acrylic, artistic oil painting sticks and watercolor sketches to record the small objects and sceneries of life, revealing a simplicity and tranquility which has become a life habit for Wang Yuping, carryinga small watercolor notebook for impromptu painting, and it is sensitive and delicate, vivid and faithful.

On March 17, 2017, Wang Yuping exhibition entitled “Jingshan Hill St.” opened in the second hall of Tang Contemporary Art Centre in 798 Art District, Beijing, focusing on the two groups of heavyweight paper works themed on the “Jingshan Hill St.” created by the artist in recent years after his return to sketches, in addition to displaying five oil paintings, a group of watercolors on paper, and two self-portraits of the artist. This exhibition is curated by curator Dai Zhuoqun.

“Jingshan Hill St.” is a section of streets of Beijing Imperial Palace, located outside the Shenwu Gate of the Imperial Palace, in the south of Jingshan Park, and it is a parallel extension of the yellow tiles and red walls for the Imperial Palace, as well as the moat. It is the landscape with the best Beijing-flavor in the present city. Beijing is a city carrying multiple emotions. On the one hand, it is heavy traffic on the streets crowded by tall buildings, and a modernized international city during the high-speed developing period; on the other hand, there are Hutongs and Courtyards, the pigeons wearing bells fly past overhead, which is another culture in Beijing.

Obviously Wang Yuping prefers the latter, since the fall of 2010, he has been carrying a set of simple painter’s paraphernalia every day, haunting the streets of Beijing, parks and Hutongs, Beijing Temple of Heaven, the North Sea, Taoranting, Jingshan Hill St., and the ancient Beijing City which is fixed in the painter’s works, and also walks through the context of history and reality. Curator Dai Zhuoqun reviews the Beijing city under the brush of Wang Yuping: “The delicate and mellow quality brings me long-lost sense of movement and the paintings are warm, reminiscent of Laoshe’s mellow taste of Beijing, Shen Congwen’s simple and bright border town, or Lin Yutang’s Moment in Peking.”

The exhibition is based on two sketches themed on “Jingshan”, the use of acrylic and artistic oil painting sticks to sketch the Jingshan Hill St. and Jingshan Hill West St., recording the streets capes at the moment of “movement of steps and shift of scenes”, so that the viewer could have an immersion of personality visiting the streets. “Jingshan Hill St.” takes the sallow color as the keynote to represent the haze covering the old city, while the turrets, walls, trams, street signs are like indistinct silhouettes, electric wires and forks of trees are alternated or intermingled, which also adds to the interesting. “Jingshan Hill West St.” was finished after 2 weeks, based on the red walls and blue sky, the trees with various postures, the shadows projected on the walls and the artist has a sense of alienation through the creation by leaning on the city to watch the world. In addition, the exhibition also presents small-scale paintings themed on the“World Art” magazine, which was significant for Wang Yuping’s generation of artists, because it was the only way for them to learn foreign art ideas at that time, although the poor printing led to illusions and misunderstandings, which were corrected by the later expansion of vision, this experience was true and vivid.

It is the first exhibition for the second hall of Tang Contemporary Art Centre in Beijing, and the exhibition remains on view till May 13.

Text and photo by Zhang Wenzhi/CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO