Shenzhen Daily (Newman Huo) MORE than 40 original paintings by Huang Rui, one of the most controversial figures of the Stars art movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s, are being exhibited at the He Xiangning Art Museum until Nov. 11.
Apart from the works on display, photographs and historical documents related to the movement are also on display to give visitors more information about the period.
“More than two decades have passed since the end of the Stars art movement, but the movement’s cultural and artistic impacts on the development of contemporary Chinese art still lingering on into today,” Huang said at the opening ceremony of the exhibition Saturday.
Huang’s paintings from the Stars period (1977 to 1984) on display include most of the representative works of his collection, such as “April 5, 1976,” which was exhibited at the Stars Art Exhibition in Beijing in 1979, and “Guitar’s Talk,” which was exhibited at the second Stars exhibition in 1980.
Katie de Tilly, an American art dealer, said she was very impressed by Huang’s works.
“I told Huang not to sell his works, because these works represent a special period of the modern Chinese art history and they should be preserved in museums,” de Tilly said.
Also on display are a dozen guestbooks from the original exhibitions.
In a comment dated Nov. 24, 1979, a visitor named Yu Luojin says: “Have Chinese people become numb and dumb? No! From this exhibition I can see what is in the innermost soul of Chinese people. Since liberation, this has been the first good art exhibition, and I hope it can travel throughout the country so that more people can appreciate your artworks.”
Born in 1952 in Beijing, Huang was one of the leaders of the Stars art movement.
On Sept. 27, 1979, together with another artist named Ma Desheng, Huang organized the Stars Art Exhibition featuring more than 150 paintings and sculptures by 23 young amateur artists, in Beihai Park, outside the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.
Two days later, they clashed with the police and their exhibition was banned.
After a protest march for artistic freedom on Oct. 1, their works were exhibited again in the park from Nov. 23 to Dec. 2.
With the approval of Beijing culture officials, the Second Stars Exhibition took place at the national art museum from Aug. 20 to Sept. 7 in 1980.
From October 1980 to January 1981, Huang and Ma traveled to 26 cities around the country to talk about the Stars and contemporary Chinese art.
In 1982, Huang met a Japanese exchange student named Fujiko Tomo and traveled with her around South China.
In July 1984, Huang obtained a visa to go and live in Osaka, Japan, which marked the end of the Stars art movement.
In 2002, Huang returned to the Chinese mainland to open his own studio in Beijing’s 798 art community.