EXHIBITED:

Yin Zhaoyang is one of the representative artists born after 1970. His art renders human self reflection and doubts against existentialism. Yin occupies a pioneering role among the most noticeable Chinese contemporary artists. Zhu Qi, Chinese art curator, believes that Yin Zhaoyang's painting launches the poetic theme of youth sentiments for the generation born during the 1970s and begins to shape the self images and expressive symbols of this generation. After the series of "Cruel Youth", "Mythology" and "Utopia", Yin displays his series of "Dizzy", with flowing memory as the illustrative theme. In 2007, Yin's new paintings examine the pre- and post- history of Cultural Revolution with a new perspective and "Rent Collection Courtyard" is the splendid representative one.

Yin's "Rent Collection Courtyard" adopts the powerful and expressive classic figures of "Rent Collection Courtyard" to reveal the Red Era in memory via groups of swirl painting forms. "Rent Collection Courtyard" is originated in 1965 when the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute gathered a group of sculptors, including professors, students, and amateurs, to create a panorama of figures depicting peasants bringing their rent into a notorious landlord's residence, his brutal exploitation of the peasants, and their simmering anger. The theme, expounding class struggle, coming from the people, and set in Pre-Liberation days, is highly political and welcomed in China as a symbol of Cultural Revolution of Sculpture Arts. These sculptures and documents are later replicated and advertised and became the classic totems of symbol struggle and the representatives of "political art" during Cultural Revolution.

Swiss curator Harald Szeemann attempted to invite "Rent Collection Courtyard" to exhibit in Kassel Documenta in 1972 but in vain. In th 1999, Harald Szeemann organized the 48 International Art Exhibition: La Biennale di Venezia and then authorized artist Cai Quo Qiang to duplicate "Venice's Rent Collection Courtyard" in the form of performance art, which won Cai Quo Qiang the Golden Lion Award and also stimulated the controversy of copy rights and illustration. Harald Szeemann, an important curator in discovering Chinese contemporary arts, values the Chinese political reality and cultural influence embedded in "Rent Collection Courtyard".

Yin Zhaoyang was born in 1970 during Cultural Revolution. After more than 30 years after the end of Cultural Revolution, the familiar and clear typical images are modiied, reinterpreted and understood differently. Painters use saw- like scraper knives on the canvas to draw repeated concentric circles, like tides of time which extend outward from the canvas and leave with vaguely recognized shadows on the canvas along with time low, no longer concrete but vaguely obscure. Time is like grand power which changes everything, and artists, good at descriptive style, add timeless power to it.

Yin Zhaoyang discussed his recent art in an interview: "I have been very interested in the concept of time in the last couple of years, including all the things within memory. Time often blurs your irst impression on something in light of memory and impression. In general, my creation is parallel to time, reflecting certain kind of thinking process within that period.... 'Dizzy' renders my current situation. Nevertheless, all of my works share one theme. That is my fantasy about language. The series of 'Dizzy' is a development of my language with forcing, damaging and blurring colors as well as unreasoned feelings" (Extracts from Oriental Art, No.3, May 2007).

Yin Zhaoyang's big grand work, "Rent Collection Courtyard", is composed with unparallel double scrolls. They are like time frame scrolls: the figures on the left in one single color of black and the figures on the right in sharp colors of red, yellow and blue. History intersects with reality to create huge contradictions in beaming swirls, extending outward with concentric circles connecting one another. Colorful dots dance around the left side of black and white guiding frame. Known as an avant-garde artist, Yin Zhaoyang admits that his art is traditional with the classical art forms in strokes and predicament. Yin thinks that regardless of time, his demands for painting ability never changes, maybe with modification of appearance but always with retaining core values.

Yin Zhaoyang's new art reveals unlimited creativity. He is never satisied with his earlier painting accomplishment and striving for new performance. "This may be the best time of my life. I feel that I am just to start. All the things in the past can be turned over like that in a calendar. For me, this happens to be the best time since my feelings are in the state of craziness, extremely hyper...," said Yin Zhaoyang with conidence (Extracts from Oriental Art, No. 3, May 2007).