Huang Yong Ping was a very influential artist during his time for several reasons. He was born in 1954, and created work mainly throughout the 1980’s. Not only did he influence Chinese work, but he was named a French artist, which spread his name throughout the world and his art became very well known due to this (Vine 2011; 8). In 1989 he participated in the exhibition, Les  magicians de la terre which took place in Paris. This exhibition made it clear that his work was moving abroad, and not just being shown in one place (Lu & Bryson 1998; 183).  Throughout his artwork, there were several messages that he would aim to portray such as the diminishment of cultural differences, and also participation in a campaign against cultural determinism and subjectivism (Vine 2011; 53). One of his works that represents this is that of the two manuals that stated information about the differences between cultures that he placed in the washing machine and then formed them together.  He also participated in a book burning with several other Dada inspired artists that was mainly used to “liberate the arts spiritual essence from its material manifestations”(Vine 2011; 54).

 

Bibliography

Kao, Ming-Lu, and Norman Bryson. Inside out: New Chinese Art. Univ. of California Press, 1998.

Kinsella, Eileen. “His Notorious Animal Artwork Censored at the Guggenheim, Huang Yong Ping Is Back in New York With a New Show.” Artnet News, Artnet News, 6 Apr. 2018, news.artnet.com/market/huang-yong-ping-gladstone-gallery-1259480.

Li, Yu-Chieh, and 黄永砯 Huang Yong Ping. “Book Washer, Shaman, and Bug Keeper: A Conversation with Huang Yong Ping, Part II.” Voices of Dissent: Art in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1976 to 1989 | Post, post.at.moma.org/content_items/592-book-washer-shaman-and-bug-keeper-a-conversation-with-huang-yong-ping-part-ii.

Vine, Richard. New China, New Art = Zhongguo Dang Dai Yi Shu. Prestel, 2011.