Huang Yong Yu 黃永玉 (1924 - )

Huang Yong Yu 黃永玉  (1924 - )

Huang Yongyu is a contemporary Chinese artist known for both his prints and paintings. Huang’s ink works are often scenes of wildlife, foliage, or human figures. Born in 1924 in Fenghuang, China, he never attended a regular school, but instead studied literature and art on his own. The artist was mainly dedicated to woodblock printing until the 1960s, he began producing ink-wash paintings. During the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s, Huang, like other artists was persecuted by the Mao Zedong’s regime. His well-known Owl paintings—which portray owls with one eye shut was a meant as a symbol of government officials turning a blind eye to injustices—landed him in a labor camp for three and half years. More recently, the artist has broadened his practice to include sculpture. Huang currently lives and works in Beijing, China. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.