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Ni Youyu By Olivia Sand


Although a young painter, Ni Youyu (b 1984, China) is an extremely articulate artist when it comes to his practice, to the art world or to art history on a broader level. Without neglecting the aesthetic aspect in his work, he keeps a global overview, easily drawing connections to Chinese traditional painting and very accurately assessing his role and his position in an art world more global than ever before. Based in Shanghai, Ni Youyu has drawn attention to himself by being designated ‘best young artist of the year’ by the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards, the prize initiated by Uli Sigg. Consistently pursuing his work in various media such as painting, photography and installation, he is determined to look for new means to highlight and translate feelings and thought into his work. In the interview below, he discusses this undertaking with the Asian Art Newspaper.


ASIAN ART NEWSPAPER: You wrote your undergraduate thesis on the status of traditional Chinese painting. What conclusions did you reach? Ni Youyu: During my


contemporary art, on the other hand, will be very open, more Westernised and globalised. Consequently, these two areas are following different paths and are not bound to meet at anytime. Te second argument I developed in my thesis is that regardless of whether being Eastern or Western, traditional or contemporary, regardless of the label, as soon as different areas reach a similar level of development, one can no longer classify them, even though they are at the same level. Basically, my thesis explored the development of both paths, the form into which they would develop and at which point they would join.


Ni Youyu © Ni Studio and Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels


undergraduate studies, I majored in Chinese traditional painting and spent four years contemplating and practising Chinese traditional painting with a focus on the Song and Yuan dynasties. In my thesis, I described the future that I foresaw for traditional art. In that context, I developed two points, the first one being that Chinese traditional art and Chinese contemporary art represent two lines of a tradition that eventually will follow different paths. Traditional Chinese art will be similar to a kind of fossil preserved in its original state and, therefore, will remain unchanged. Chinese


AAN: Did you rely on these conclusions as a starting point for your own practice? NY: Yes, absolutely. It was the starting point, but just for the time after I had graduated. Ten, following my graduation, I did not paint one single traditional painting ever again. Although I create very contemporary art works, I spend a lot of time looking at traditional painting, or traditional collections. I compare myself to a contemporary composer who writes very contemporary music, but who still listens to Mozart, or Bach.


AAN: On the one hand, you are very much aware of the past, but on the other, you are trying to break away from it all. How do you


NEWS IN BRIEF


NEW DIRECTOR, RUBIN MUSEUM, NYC Te Rubin Museum of Art has announced the appointment of Jorrit Britschgi as Executive Director. Prior to the appointment, Britschgi served as Director of Exhibitions, Collections, and Research at the Rubin, driving strategies for exhibition development, greater and deeper audience engagement, and collections-based research. Britschgi has unveiled plans for the institution’s 2018 exploration of ‘Te Future’, which will be the year-long connecting theme for exhibitions and programmes. Britschgi replaces Patrick Sears, who is retiring after having led the Museum for the past five years. Britschgi is an art historian with more than a decade of museum experience. Before joining the Rubin in 2016, he served as Head of Exhibitions and Publications at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich.


INDIA AND THE WORLD, MUMBAI Te Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalya (CSMVS) are collaborating with the British Museum and the National Museum in New Delhi to present a landmark exhibition opening in Mumbai in November and transferring to New Delhi in March 2018. India and the World: A History in Nine Stories features some of the most important objects and works of art from the Indian subcontinent, in dialogue with iconic pieces from the British Museum collection.


ASIAN ART NOVEMBER 2017


AI WEIWEI IN NEW YORK Te latest installation from Ai WeiWei is his monumental installation in New York entitled ‘Good Fences Make Good Neighbors’, which runs until 11 February 2018. It spans the whole of New York City, with large-scale installations, murals, banners and photographs commenting on the refugee crisis, located in 300 locations throughout the five boroughs. Te works can be found on top of buildings, near bus shelters and at newsstand kiosks, as well as in larger public spaces such as Washington Square Park and Central Park. Te works include fences and cages (symbolising the ways in which nations and cultures create divisions), as well as digital screens and printed banners featuring the faces of displaced persons, both famous (Albert Einstein, Piet Mondrian), as well as anonymous photographs of immigrants coming in through Ellis Island and Ai WeiWei’s own images from the Shariya refugee camp in Iraq.


GALLERY WEEKEND KUALA LUMPUR Gallery Weekend Kuala Lumpur is an annual 3-day celebration of aesthetic and cultural diversity in Malaysia’s capital city. Having launched successfully last year, GWKL returns from 8 to 10 December bringing together galleries, institutions, restaurants and hotels across Greater Kuala Lumpur.


Coinciding with Malaysia’s 60th year of Independence, Gallery Weekend 2017 aspires to promote Malaysia’s dynamic cultural scene, whilst creating connections across the globe. Tis year’s edition welcomes a partnership with other international gallery weekends, including Brussels and Barcelona.


RONG VILLA, SHANGHAI An historic villa, associated with the renowned Rong business family opens to the public for the first time on 12 November. Called Rong Zhai or Rong Villa now, the three-floor villa at 186 Shaanxi Road N, in Jing’an District, was the former residence of Rong Zongjing, a pioneer of one of China’s most famous tycoon families. Te work has been paid for by Prada, the fashion brand, which now rents the building. Te building will be open 6 days a week. Reservations essential, in advance, by using Prada’s official WeChat - pradawechat.fortytwo. com.cn/Events/20170920/pc_cn. html


NISSAN AWARD, JAPAN Te Nissan Art Award has named Hikaru Fujii the winner of its 2017 Grand Prix. Te artist receives around $44,500, as well as the opportunity to participate in a three-month residency programme at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York. Founded in 2013 to celebrate achievements in contemporary art,


the biennial award honours emerging Japanese artists.


THE ASHMOLEAN OXFORD Te Ashmolean are showcasing the work of contemporary Chinese artist Qu Leilei (b 1951), who now lives and works in the UK. Leilei was a founding member of the avant-garde Stars Group in the late 1970s and came to the UK in 1985. Te exhibition traces his progression from calligraphic collage to an exploaration of a new vocabulary of ink language which blends brushwork with Western techniques. A symposium, Qu Leilei; Te Stars and After, is on 24 November and a workshop with Qu Leilei is on 27 January 2018. More information on ashmolean.org


PRADO, MADRID Tis autumn, the Chinese artist Cao Guo-Qiang is transforming the Hall of Realms in the Prado into his studio, in order to create a group of works inspired by the memory of this historic space and in dialogue with the Old Masters. Te residency culminates with the creation of the Spririt of Painting, a monumental work measuring 20 metres. More information on museodelprado.es


BONHAMS CHARITY AUCTION, LONDON Bonhams has organised, in aid of the Anglo Jordanian Society, an auction of leading Jordanian and other Arab artists such as Fahrelnissa Zeid, Mohanna Durra and Mona Saudi. Tickets by donation of £50.


translate that into your creative process? NY: Initially, it was a major issue for me and I guess most artists, who are in the same situation, are facing similar problems. However, I gradually found out that there is a constant contradiction between form and expression. If you are obsessed with form, there is always the problem of how to deal with the differentiation between the traditional and the contemporary. If your focus is expression (thoughts, reflection, philosophical reflections, or emotions), it does not really change over time. In my practice, once I found out what exactly I wanted to express, I went back to form, and I understood even better why the traditional artists used a certain language, or brushstrokes, to express what they wanted to say. In that sense, I feel like a person who is familiar enough with that language in order to write it or adopt words from it.


Of course, language brings up two


important notions: symbol and sign. In my opinion, I feel it is also a matter of how deep your understanding is of the context, the word, and symbol. If you are getting to a certain level of understanding, you can use a word in a more complex way rather than just referring to it. As a contemporary artist, I feel I have the following advantage: I have at my disposal words from the entire Chinese


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