Huang Rui

Huang Rui was among the first generation of contemporary Chinese artists. On September 27, 1979, members of the Stars Group, including Huang Rui, Ma Desheng, Zhong Acheng and Wang Keping, organised an exhibition of over 150 paintings and sculptures of their members by hanging them on the exterior wall of the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, sparking widespread attention. Huang Rui's works at the time possessed powerful symbolic meaning, in a style that straddled figurative and abstract.

The influence of Eastern philosophy on his art was the most noticeable in his works after his move to Japan in summer 1984. Huang derived inspiration from Japanese Guitai artists, the philosophy of Lao-Tzu and the I Ching. This influence informed his entire output of paintings from the 1980s, including the 'cold abstract' series Space Structure and Space. In the summer of 1984, Huang Rui relocated to Osaka, Japan, and in October of that year held a solo exhibition in Osaka Central Gallery. At the exhibition, he became acquainted with Shiraga Kazuo, Motonaga Sadamasa and other principal members of the Gutai group. The group was one of the most important Japanese avant-garde collectives, and had been active mainly in the Kansai region since 1954. Shiraga Kazuo was the most radical member of the Gutai group, painting with his feet to produce canvases of twisting, writhing 'brush strokes' and thick layered paint. Huang Rui's friendship with Shiraga Kazuo had a profound impact on his work from 1985 onwards, which is evident in his 1989 piece Dedicated to 24th October. The hard edges and finely coloured rectangular shapes of his earlier abstract style of the early 1980s were no longer apparent. Instead, in this piece, we see a large area of red, thickly applied in quick strokes, and overlapping blocks of black and grey at the corner of the painting, producing an effect of roughness and strong momentum. Of note, Huang Rui stopped making abstract expressionist works after 1992, which makes Dedicated to 24th October particularly valuable.