Mao Xuhui
Sketch in Guishan . Cypress Forest II
75x165cm
Oil on canvas

"Artist: Mao Xuhui, Sketch of Guishan,Cypress Forest II, DImension: 75x165cm, Oil on canvas

Mao Xu Hui ___ (b 1956)
Mao Xuhui was born in Chongqing but resides now in Kunming where he acquires much of his inspirations and source of creativity. He graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Yunnan Academy of Fine Arts in 1982. Mao leaded the ÒNew ImagistÓ movement and the Southwest Art Group in the 80s, , which included renowned artsits such as Zhang Xiaogang and Pan Dehai.
In 1982, a German Expressionist exhibit was held at the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing and it has liberated Mao as a young man. He changed his way of looking at art, and he started using painting as his words to express his feeling. He subsequently went against the grain of Chinese culture at the time and began his art journey in the expression of emotions. Mao was not only flexible with images and visual order, more importantly, he no longer followed the conventional method and logic of concrete language forms such as strokes. Mao has detached himself to construct the object or to follow certain visual logic. He intentionally abandoned all kinds of rules about colours, strokes and forms in art history, trying to go back to a kind of simple and pure sketch and to break free from the existing visual order
Mao assimilates Western Modernism, especially German Expressionism, and keeps exploration to the far-reaching extent. He constantly seeks new symbols and methods of expression for keeping pace with the times and his own life experience so that his artistic forms shifts from passionate touch of brush to detached coolness, from heavy color and dense textures to soft and subtle surfaces. However, his original ideals remain. He paints concrete portraits of everyday objects as a response to both social changes and inner feelings, combining criticism of society with criticism of himself.
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