The sun rays were warming the walls of the National Art Museum of China, casting down shadows when “Pursuing Dreams with a Pure Heart – Han Yuchen Oil on Canvas Collection” was opened to the public in the National Art Museum of China on October 29, 2022.
The beauty of time lies in the change of seasons. The charm of art lies in the souls of the time. With 83 oil painting works, Han Yuchen presented his 50 years of painting journey. The 13-day exhibition was highly commended. This art show was visited by many artists and attracted the attention of people from all walks of life.
Han Yuchen and Chairman Feng met at the cultural roundtable meeting of the Boao Forum in Hainan, the last time they met was over a year ago. The two first read together the excerpt “Sketching is the Stairway to the Kingdom of Freedom in Painting” written by Yang Feiyun, director of the Oil Painting Academy of the Chinese National Academy of Arts, engraved on the wall of the exhibition, followed by the viewing of each work in the exhibition. A total of 83 works were exhibited in Han Yuchen’s oil painting exhibition. When Chairman Feng asked why 25 works from his early years were displayed separately and titled “Birth of a Dream and Difficulties of Self-study”, Han Yuchen told him about the ups and downs he faced at the Central Academy of Fine Arts due to his special family situation in the 70s, about the difficulties during his self-study in sketching. Chairman Feng highly praised Han Yuchen’s unwavering determination and tenacious spirit of adhering to the purest intention of art and artistic skills of several works of this period, such as “Taihang Old Farmer”, “Lush Grassland”, “Zhangjiajie Eighteen Generals Mountain”.
The Taihang Mountains are located in the west of Handan, and Han Yuchen often goes there to view the scenery and produce his sketches. Chairman Feng believes that the 20 works exhibited in this event truly reproduce the grand scenery of the Taihang Mountains, vividly depicting the hard-working and persevering spirit of the people of the Taihang Mountains, which is also a concrete embodiment of the artist’s practice of art originating from life and going to the roots of creative concepts.
In front of Hall 5, Chairman Feng carefully observed Han Yuchen’s 50-year timeline of sketches and the documents of exhibitions held in China and abroad over the past ten years. He believed that this is an active exploration of the exhibition’s progress, and it could provide the audience with a more comprehensive understanding of the painter’s growth, experience, and creative ideology, to deepen the understanding of the connotation of each of the works.
When visiting the 38 works of the third section of the exhibition “Devotion to Multi-ethnic Customs”, Chairman Feng praised Han Yuchen’s vivid depictions of ethnic minorities such as Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Guizhou and Yunnan. When he came to the 135cm×230cm multi-subject painting of “The Band of Dong Village”, Chairman Feng first stepped back to examine the piece from a distance, then approached to examine the color, and then carefully read the labels next to the painting accompanied by a few onsite photos. As Han Yuchen introduced the creative process of this painting to Chairman Feng, and how he overcame the difficulties of adjusting for perspective changes and balancing of color, Chairman Feng encouraged him to persevere and strive to achieve greater breakthroughs in his artistic venture.
At the end of the visit, Chairman Feng accepted several interviews and praised Han Yuchen’s oil paintings and sketches for their realistic and touching nature, as well as his creative passion for achieving high artistic achievements.