This interview was conducted at Yu Youhan's home in Shanghai on 3 March 2009.


Biography:

Yu Youhan (b. 1943, Shanghai) is an artist and currently lives and works in Shanghai.

In 1973, after graduating from the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts in Beijing, Yu became a teacher at the Shanghai College of Arts and Crafts. His Mao series, which he developed in 1988, attracted international attention and in the 1990s became some of the most recognizable images of political pop in China.

Yu’s works have appeared in many international exhibitions, including the 45th Venice Biennale (1993), the ‘China Avant-Garde Exhibition’ (Germany, 1993) and the 22nd Sao Paulo Biennial (1994), to name a few.

Yu continues to paint and also exhibits widely.


簡歷︰

余友涵,1943年生於上海。藝術家,居於上海。

1973年畢業於北京中央工藝美術學院藝術設計專業,其後獲分配到上海市工藝美術學校任教。1988年開始以波普方式創作,開展了他的《毛澤東》系列。九十年代,余友涵的《毛澤東》系列在國際藝術界嶄露頭角,成為中國政治波普最為人所知的代表之一。
 
余友涵的作品見於海內外,曾參與第45屆《威尼斯雙年展》(1993);《中國前衛藝術展》(1993,德國);第22屆《聖保羅雙年展》(1994)等重要展覽。

Context

In 2006, Asia Art Archive began a focused archiving project called 'Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990'. This project aimed at developing a comprehensive collection of primary research materials including books, periodicals, newspapers, exhibition brochures, invitations, video recordings, correspondence, and other relevant documents. 

As part of this project, AAA digitised more than 80,000 items of material from personal archives to include artists Mao Xuhui, Wu Shanzhuan, Zhang Xiaogang, and Zhang Peili; curators and critics Fei Dawei, Lu Peng, and Zheng Shengtian; as well as the archives of Tokyo Art Gallery. As part of the research process over 75 in-depth interviews with key artists, curators, and critics were conducted. From a portion of these interviews, AAA created a documentary film about experimental art in South China (Guangzhou) in the 1980s entitled From Jean-Paul Sartre to Teresa Teng: Contemporary Cantonese Art in the 1980s.

AAA’s 1980s archiving project culminated with the launch of a comprehensive website portal called www.china1980s.org in September 2010.

Access level

Online

Spoken language

Mandarin

Content type

event photograph/recording, 

interview documentation

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Interview: Yu Youhan (English subtitles)