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Huang Yao
Retrospective
Showcasing over 60 works including calligraphy, calligraphic paintings,
abstract paintings, traditional landscapes, folk art and cartoons by the
late artist
Singapore
Art Museum Press Release
Opens Friday 13 July 2001 Till 2 September 2001
(Galleries 5,6,7 & 8, Singapore Art Museum)
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(9
July 2001) Singapore Art Museum presents a retrospective exhibition,
featuring the works by the late artist, Huang Yao (1914 - 1987), who was a
multi-talented artist, and an accomplished scholar, educator and
cartoonist. The Guest of Honour of the exhibition is Minister of State for
Information & The Arts and Defence, Mr David T E Lim, who will receive
the donation on behalf of the Singapore Art Museum on 12 July 2001,
6.30pm, Glass Hall at the Singapore Art Museum.
The exhibition will present a diversity of Huang Yao's artistic practices,
ranging from manhua (cartoon), calligraphy, traditional landscape,
minsuhua (folk art) and his innovation of chuyunshu (reverse writing)
style of Chinese calligraphy as well as his experimentation with wenzi hua
(calligraphic paintings) that produced abstract forms. This retrospective
exhibition will also showcase landscape paintings from the series of
'Scenes of Vietnam', 'Scenes of Thailand' and 'Scenes of Nanyang'. These
works incorporated many local subject matters such as the people and
cultural aspects in the region (also known as the Nanyang subject matter)
that reflects the late artist's strong affiliation with the Nanyang
region.
Born in 1914 in Shanghai, Huang Yao began his artistic career as a
cartoonist and created the cartoon character Niu bizi, which he was
popularly known for, in works he produced during the 1930s. His cartoons
were well-received with the moral content of these stories extolling the
goodness of human nature and deploring the evilness of situations.
Being well-versed in Chinese literature, folklore, calligraphy and
paintings, Huang Yao applied his knowledge into his artistic practices, in
particular, his invention of the calligraphy painting, wenzi hua - which
included subject matters such as the different forms of a Chinese
character, idioms and renowned Tang and Song poems, and their eventual
transformation into abstract forms. Huang Yao also invented a unique
method of calligraphic writing style known as chuyun shu (reverse writing)
in the 1950s, where he wrote the calligraphy in a reverse order. The
written character was written as it would appear, facing the audience
instead of the artist. Huang Yao first demonstrated this when he held
talks and gave art demonstrations during one of his exhibitions in Kuala
Lumpur.
Says
Ms Patricia Ong, curator of the exhibition, on how the exhibition has been
curated, "The exhibition features a selection of works from both the
donation as well as the private collection of the Huang family. The works
have been thematically arranged in sections of calligraphy, calligraphic
paintings, abstract paintings, traditional landscapes, scenes of Southeast
Asia, paintings of children at play and paintings of flok tales and
mythology. The exhibition also presents Huang Yao's literary works,
manuscripts and other artefacts which will offer the viewer a glimpse of
the late artist's intellectual interest and literary engagement in art
history and theory."
Besides his diverse artistic talents, Huang Yao was also an accomplished
scholar. His renowned academic publication, Xinma huaren zhi (The History
of the Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore) was a detailed account of the
traditions, customs and practices of overseas Chinese in this region. The
research work for the publication took him 10 years (1956 - 1966) to
complete, and the work was written from both a historical and
social-geographical perspective. To date, this publication remains an
important source of documentation of the life of the overseas Chinese in
this region.
Huang Yao left China after the war where he worked in Vietnam, Hong Kong
and Thailand before finally settling in Malaysia in 1956. During his
residence in Malaysia, he was involved in education work up till his
retirement towards end-1973. Since then, he focused most of his time on
his artistic practices, where he produced huge volumes of works,
especially his body of abstract works and wenzi hua (calligraphic
paintings) between 1974 to 1978, after which he moved to Kuala Lumpur and
continued with his artistic practices up till his death in 1987.
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