Wu Yi
Born in Changchun, Jilin, in 1966, Wu Yi graduated from the Department of Chinese Painting, CAFA in 1989, and studied traditional Chinese painting under Professor Lu Chen at the CAFA, Beijing, and received a master’s degree in 1993; currently he is an associate professor in the Department of Mural Painting at the CAFA, where he is a postgraduate supervisor and the director of Studio 4.
Wu Yi is extremely gentle while also being emphatic. He is friendly and educated. He knows the art of listening and discovering the essence of things. He is gifted with a very rare style of humour, so much loved by us Czechs. His deep feelings live in symbiosis with an analytical mind. He devotes everything to his art of painting and offers good wishes for everyone! He is also helpful!The painter Wu Yi simply fascinates me. He is a great man, a great painter. He is a professor in the Department of Mural Painting at the CAFA in Beijing, where he previously studied.
There are only a few visual artists in the West who are able to paint with ink on paper – a traditional Chinese technique requiring a consonance between thinking and emotion. By the same token, only a few Chinese artists are able to use oil or tempera on canvas – a traditional western technique. Wu Yi has a command of both. His paintings can be inspirational for Czech artists; they are true and gentle.
Wu Yi is an embodiment of an old Chinese Master who is ingeniously changing the history of ink painting. He gives us an image of what a Chinese scholar looked (and looks) like, and thus we have an opportunity to examine what we learned about Chinese scholars, for example, from the Songs of Ancient China and perhaps other sources. They have in their home the “four treasures of a scholar’s studio”, including a brush, ink stick, rice paper and ink stone. Since time immemorial, Chinese scholars and men of letters, whose ambition was to attain a position of office and serve the World under Heaven, the ruler and the people, have been training not only in the general official skills but also the basics of philosophy, ethics and aesthetics in the never-ending process of self-improvement. This includes the learning of artistic skills, such as calligraphy, the art of playing the qin zither, painting, as well as literary art – the four arts of Chinese lyricism.
Solo exhibitions
2013 Prague Summer, Václav Špála Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
2007 Simplicity - Exhibition of Works by Wu Yi, Galerie 99, Aschaffenburg, Germany
2001 Exhibition of Works by Wu Yi, Art Museum of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, China
1998 Exhibition of Pictures by Wu Yi, Shenzhen Art Museum, China
1993 Exhibition of Works by Wu Yi, CAFA Art Museum, China
Group exhibitions
2013 “The Revival of Tradition- Chinese Modern Art Show”, İstanbul Tuyap,Turkey
2013 “Portrait of the Times: Thirty years of Chinese Contemporary Art”, Power Station of Art, Shanghai
2013 “China’s Freehand Brushwork - Nomination Exhibition of Leading Contemporary Chinese Ink Wash Artists”, Casares Museum, Italy
2013 “New Dimension of Ink Painting – Critics’ Nomination Exhibition”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
2013 “Original Tao – the New Conception of Chinese Contemporary Art” (Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
2013 “Parallel Exhibition to the Venice Biennale”, Venice, Italy
2013 “Re-Ink - Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Ink and Wash Painting”, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2012 “Exhibition of Modern Chinese Ink Wash Painting”, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
2012 “Exhibition of Modern Chinese Art”, Palais des Nations, Geneva; Swiss Exhibition Centre, Basel
2012 “Exhibition of Modern Chinese Art”, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
2012 “Revival of Tradition - Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition”, La Galleria Pall Mall, London, UK
2012 “Dimensions - Analysis of Three Art Cases – Guangzhou Triennial”, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
2012 “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings in the Past 100 Years - Carrousel du Louvre”, Louvre, Paris, France
2011 “Contemporary Art from China”, University of Georgia Museum of Art, United States
2011 “Chinese Description - Exhibition of Contemporary Art”, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2011 “The Idea is Before the Brush - Contemporary Chinese Ink on Paper”, Eli Klein Fine Art Gallery, New York, US
2010 “Reshaping History: China Art from 2000 to 2009”, China National Convention Centre, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2010 “Nature of China - Exhibition of Modern Chinese Art Studies in 2010”, True Color Museum, Suzhou; Mingtian Gallery, Chengdu, China
2010 “International Biennial of Chinese Ink and Wash Painting in Shenzhen”, Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
2009 “Matrix of Four Gates – Exhibition of Traditional Lineaged Contemporary Ink and wash”, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2009 “Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Ink Wash and Paper”, National History Museum of the Republic of Belarus, Historical Museum of Serbia
2009 “Ink not Ink: Chinese Contemporary Ink and Wash Art Exhibition”, Warsaw Royal Castle, Hungarian Agricultural Museum, The National Museum of Contemporary Art of Romania, Sculpture Museum of the Croatian Academy of Science and Art
2008 “New Limits of Ink and Wash Painting - Exhibition of Modern Chinese Ink and Wash Painting”, Berlin National galerie, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany
2008 “Exhibition of the Works of Li Jin, Liu Qinghe, Wu Yi”, Danish Centre of Art, Beijing
2008 “The Chinese Art of Affection”, Yuxin Gallery, Singapore
2008 “The Path of Chinese Painting in the Contemporary Age, 1978-2008”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
2008 “Tastes and Paintings: Clarification - Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Ink and Wash Painting”, Art Centre of Providence University, Taiwan
2008 “Ink not Ink - Chinese Contemporary Ink and Wash Art Exhibition”, Shenzhen Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Beijing Today Art Museum
2007 “Life Needs Smiles: Exhibition of Works by Three Artists from New York, Moscow and Beijing”, Galerie Albrecht, Munich, Germany
2007 “Unity and Solidarity - The Chinese Version of the Exhibition”, Today Art Museum, Beijing
2007 “Chengdu Biennial”, International Exhibition Centre, Chengdu
2007 “Ink: The Monochrome World”, Tokyo University of Arts, Tokyo
2007 “Focus on Ink - Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Painting”, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing
2006 “Meditation and Narration: Exhibition of Contemporary Art”, Artist Commune, Hong Kong
2006 “Exhibition of Works by Wu Yi and Li Jin”, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing
2006 “Documentation Exhibition of Ink and Wash Art”, Nanjing Museum
2006 “Large Exhibition of Chinese Art Today”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
2006 “21st International Exhibition of Asian Art, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore
2006 “2006-Documentary Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Art”, Art Museum of China Millennium Monument, Beijing
2005 “Makeup: Large Exhibition of Chinese Theatre Arts”, Today Art Museum, Beijing
2005 “1985-2000: Experimental Ink and Wash Art Retrospective”, Gallery of the Institute of Fine Art in Shenzhen
2005 “Sino-Korean Exchange Exhibition of Modern Ink and Wash Art”, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
2004 “The Spot, Radiation and Penetration – The Visual Communication from Ink and Brush”, Malaysia National Museum of Art, Kuala Lumpur
2004 “Images: Exchange Exhibition between CAFA and Sydney Art School”, Gallery of Sydney Art School, Australia
2004 “Connecting the Classic and the Modern: Exhibition of New Works by Leading Chinese Artists”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
2004 “19th International Asian Art Exhibition, Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
2004 “Figurative Painting of the Contemporary New Reality”, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai
2003 “How to Explain the Word ‘Ink’”, Artist Commune, Hong Kong
2002 “The Light of Ink: Exhibition of Contemporary Ink and Wash Paintings from both Shores of the Taiwan Strait”, National Dr.Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei, Taiwan
2002 “Sino-Korean Exhibition of Works by Selected Artists”, Seoul Sejong Museum of Art, Art Museum of University of Suwon
2002 “Golden Harvest: Exhibition of Modern Chinese Art”, Zagreb National Museum, Croatia; Beograd Historical Museum, Yugoslavia
2001 “The Real Color of Ink – Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Painting”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
2001 “Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Ink and Wash Painting”, Guangdong Art Museum, Guangzhou
2001 “Poster Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Artists”, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing
2000 “Large Exhibition of New Chinese Painting”, Shanghai Art Museum
1999 “Second International Biennial of Ink Wash Painting in Shenzhen”, Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen
1999 “Metropolitan Ink”, Guangdong Art Museum, Guangzhou
1998 “Uncovering Twenty Years of Contemporary Chinese Art”, Imperial Ancestral Shrine, Beijing
1998 “Liberated Ink: Exhibition of Six Modern Artists”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
1997 “Exhibition of Modern Chinese Sketching”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
1997 “Stars of the Century: Biennial of Chinese Art”, Toronto Art Museum, Toronto, Canada
1996 “The State of Contemporary Ink and Wash Painting in China”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
1995 “The Invitation Exhibition for Young Artists”, Gallery of CAFA, Beijing
1994 “Test of Tension: Exhibition of Expressive Ink and Wash Painting”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
Courtesy of the artist, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO.