Shang Yang (; born 1942, former name Shang Nengquan) is a contemporary Chinese painter based in Beijing and is considered one of the most important painters of the life-stream movement. Known for his oriental humanist thought he believes landscapes are living things and puts their spirit into his brushwork. In 1965 he graduated from the Hubei Art Academy, where he then taught for several years. He received his masters from the Hubei Art Academy in 1981. Yang became the Associate President in 1989. Shang Yang became a Professor and the Officer-in-Charge of Fine Arts at the Research Institute of South China Normal University in 1993. Also in 1993, he became the Vice President of the Chinese Art painting Society. Shang Yang has exhibited extensively in China since the 1980s, including at Shanghai Biennale in 1996, and has shown internationally at galleries in London, Paris, Tokyo, St. Petersburg, and Helsinki. Shang Yang's work often appropriates images from traditional Chinese landscape painting, which are screened onto the canvas by a machine; he then distorts the image with graffiti or obtrusive geometrical designs. His works combine avant-garde exploration and solid artistic skill to create unique works of expressionism oil painting.
Career Timeline
1942 Born at Honghu, Hubei Province. Kai County, Sichuan Province by Origin
1957 Studied in Hubei Art Academy Attached Middle School
1965 Graduated from Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, then Served as Art Editor in Hubei People's Publishing House
1981 Graduated with M.A. in Oil Painting Department from Hubei Institute of Fine Arts
1985 Trustee of Chinese Artists Association
1987 Professor of Hubei Institute of Fine Arts
1989 Vice President of Hubei Institute of Fine Arts
1995 Director in Institute of Fine Arts of South China Normal University and Vice Chairman of Chinese Oil Painting Association.
1997 Professor in Fine Arts Academy of Capital Normal University
2000 Director in Fine Arts Academy of Capital Normal University
2009 China Artists Association, Vice Director of the Oil Painting Arts
Style
Shang Yang was trained Soviet Realism but after the Cultural Revolution he was one of the first artists to reject his training. He started creating mixed media works in the early 1980s.
Shang Yang's work tends to use images from traditional Chinese landscape paintings. The images are then screened onto a canvas by a machine. He then distorts the image with graffiti or obtrusive geometrical designs. Shang Yang has demonstrated an infatuation with the yellow earth plateau remote from southern culture. In the years 1984-1985, Shang Yang created a series of oil paintings on Korean paper about the conditions and customs of northern Shaanxi, clearly signaling his change in artistic style. In his painting 'Yellow River boatmen' you can see the beginnings of his fascination with the loess plateau, and this wells forth in an uninhibited way in his later works in the fundamental timbre of yellow. In 'Mother of the Loess Plateau' the artist loves the barren mountainous area of the Yellow River Basin and its people. In this work, the image of the mother, the stone wall behind her, and the loess hills in the background link together, hinting at the inseparable bond created by life in a warm and intrepid environment.
Yellow Theme
"When Shang Yang was an art student he applied for a field trip to northern Shaanxi Province in 1981, many of his fellow students considered the artist to be “a little under the weather.” Though revered as the cradle of Chinese civilization, the Yellow River Basin was then one of the poorest areas in the country and few of his classmates could understand the artist's passion for the region. The trip, though, proved to be a life-changing experience for the artist, providing the inspiration for nearly three decades of work, which have earned him the reputation as the “evergreen tree” for his endless stream of artistic creativity and a place as one of the country's most accomplished artists. According to Shang, while in Shaanxi, he felt completely removed from the materialism of the world around him and was able to connect on a fundamental level with the region's natural surroundings. He was greatly inspired by Shaanxi’s landscapes and rural communities and created many oil paintings revolving around the theme of the Yellow River, which are still among the artist’s most famous works. Painted in a burst of yellow hues, His Shaanxi paintings often depicted the hard lives of the locals, such as the Yellow River’s taut and tanned boat trackers or women with weather-beaten faces, and all resonate with a deep sense of human compassion."