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Huang Taihua, born 1947
copyright Huang Taihua

"A strong taste of life."

Huang Taihua is director of the Academy of Fine Arts of Acheng, a small city of ca. 240,000 inhabitants, in Heilongjiang province. This North-East province is known as "Beidahuang" (vast barren land) and next to Yunan a leading printmaking center in today's China. However the art prints by Huang Taihua, a Korean national, are quite different from the "typical" Beidahuang style. They are colorful, upbeat, of a sophisticated simplicity and sometimes a bit whimsical. It is hard not to like Huang Taihua's art creations.

Acheng Art Academy

Acheng Art Academy is situated in the Sports Palace of Acheng, a city 28 kilometers South of Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province. Huang Taihua, printmaker and director of the Academy with ca. 12 students, likes to emphasize the difference and independancy from the "Beidahuang Art School" (with Hao Boyi as its leading head, mentor and "great old master"):

"There is a great difference between our prints and those of Beidahuang. Beidahuang was an uncultivated land in the North and located on vast plains. The creation of these prints gives the impression of a huge agricultural land and of huge forests. But our town is located in an area between the mountainous region and the plains. The plains and the mountains, the rivers and the hills are very different from other regions of the country. We have landscapes of mountains and landscapes of life. This gives us a lot of inspiration for numerous art works. Most of these art works have a strong taste of life and strong local colors."

Translated by artelino from a French text by China Radio International - see link at the end of the article. Here is the original text:

Trudge, 1993
copyright Huang Taihua

"Il y a une grande différence entre nos estampes et celles de Beidahuang. Beidahuang était une terre inculte dans le nord. Elle est située sur une plaine sans limites. La création de ces estampes donne une impression de grande agriculture et de grande forêt. Mais notre ville se trouve dans une zone entre la région montagneuse et la plaine où les montagnes, les rivières et les collines sont très différentes des autres régions du pays. Il y a des payages de villages de montagne, de la vie. Ce qui nous donne beaucoup d'inspiration pour la création de nombreuses oeuvres. La plupart de ces oeuvres ont une forte saveur de la vie et une forte couleur locale."

The Prints ...

Silent Vale, 1982
copyright Huang Taihua

The prints by Huang Taihua look modern, but not Western. They do not look "typically" Chinese, nor can we discover any traces of traditional Korean art. And they do not look like any of the Beidahuang art works by for instance Chen Long, Hao Boyi, Yu Chengyou or Zhang Hongxun.

What do they look like? Well - they are Huang Taihua art prints, and they are easily accessible to one's heart and one's mind as well. If you like them, you like them immediately. And not much interpretation is required. The combinations of colors and compositions are strong enough to speak for themselves.

The preferred technique of the artist is the traditional woodblock print. He uses it both with oil-based and with water-soluble inks. The latter is the old traditional Chinese way of making a woodblock print. But he is not fixed to just one technique. Also silkscreen prints are among his repertoire.

Collectors of modern Chinese prints are not spoiled regarding paper quality. The Chinese paper is usually poor. The prints by Huang Taihua that we had received for our auction in January 2005, were a positive surprise. Not comparable to the lush French papers like for instance BFK Rives, but flawless and very pliable ... thus ideal for shipping.

Most contemporary print artists - with maybe the exception of the Japanese - prefer large XXL sizes. Huang Taihua does everything, from the jumbo format to more handy sizes.

The prints we have seen by the artist so far were from the 1980s and 1990s. They had edition sizes of 20 or 30 copies. This is typical even for leading contemporary Chinese artists. Until recently there was no art market in China. The Chinese printmakers created for themselves, for friends and - very important - for national art exhibitions like the annual National Chinese Print Exhibition (a major event for all Chinese printmakers). These are highly competitive art shows and every artists strives hard to be admitted and possbily be awarded with a prize. This has been a major driving force for Chinese artists - public recognition and the chance to exhibit outside China. The way to it lead via the Chinese art exhibitions. Until recently, the commercial aspect has been of secondary or of no importance for Chinese printmakers. Nearly all leading Chinese artists had some kind of state-insured income - for instance in teaching positions at art academies or institutes or as state-employed painters.

... and the Career

Drunk Village, 1986
copyright Huang Taihua

Huang Taihua was born in 1947 in Acheng. From 1984-1986 he studied at the Printmaking Department of Central Fine Arts Academy in Beijing. He is a member of the Chinese Artists Association and the Chinese Printmakers Association. Huang holds the position of director of Heilongjiang Artists Association, is vice president of the Artists Association of Harbin (the capital of Heilongjiang province) and director of the Academy of Fine Arts of Acheng. Needless to say that he is very active as organizer and mentor of all kind of printmaking activities in Acheng and in Heilongjiang province.

You may have the impression that the number of memberships and the kind of positions an artist holds in these associations, reflects his importance in the Chinese art market. This impression is not wrong. Art lovers from outside China may have concerns about the influence of the state in this still somewhat regulated system. We have been dealing with the Chinese print market since spring of 2003 and we have the impression that those artists who are well established in China, do actually well reflect the best printmakers that the country has. Chinese artists enjoy a rather liberalized and relaxed political atmosphere since the end of the Cultural Revolution. The best indication for our assessment are some Western museums who have started to buy systematically and at large scale modern artworks in China. They buy preferably from artists who are well established within the system of the Chinese art "market".

Exhibitions, Awards and Collections

Silence, 1985
copyright Huang Taihua

In this system of highly competitive art exhibitions, Huang Taihua has collected an impressive number of honors and awards. As the citizen of a rather small Chinese town it had certainly not been easy in the beginning. The success that he achieved speaks for the quality of his art creations. Here we go.

• 1969-1981 - 20 prints like "Spring Breeze" and "Mountain Village" were selected for a provicial exhibition and were published in national Chinese art magazines.
• 1982 - The print "Apple Girls" was selected for the exhibition "The Charm of North China" by Chinese Art Museum and was later exhibited in 5 African countries like Uganda and Senegal.
• 1983 - The print "Silent Vale" was selected for the 8th National Print Exhibition.
• 1985 - The print "Cold Way" was selected in the first National Physical Art Exhibition.
• 1986 - 9 prints like "Silence" were selected for the "Acheng Print Exhibition" by the Chinese Art Museum. They won the golden cup of the "Printmaking World" and the medal of "Lu Xun Prints".
• 1986 - The print "Snowy House" won the first grade of the National Korean Artist Exhibition.
• 1987 - 4 prints like "Rut" were selected for the "Chinese Prints 2000 Exhibition" in Kobe, Japan.
• 1987 - The print "Silence" was selected for the exhibition of the collection of the Chinese Art Museum.
• 1989 - The print "Red Wall" was selected for the 7th National Fine Arts Exhibition, and won the first grade prize of Heilongjiang province.
• 1990 - First solo exhibition at Heilongjiang Art Museum.
• 1991 - The Print "Quiet Autumn" was selected for the exhibition "Chinese Contemporary Prints", an art show to exchange cultural relations with Korea.
• 1992 - The print "First Month of Winter" won the silver medal of the 11th National Print Exhibition. Later this print was selected for the "Chinese Modern Prints" exhibition in Seoul, Korea.
• 1992 - The print "Auspicious Snow" was selected for the National Fine Arts Exhibition.
• 1993 - The print "Children of Mountains" was selected for the National Print Category Exhibition and for the 5th "Three Categories of Print Exhibition".
• 1993 - The print "Trudge" won a prize at the third National Physical Art Exhibition.
• 1993 - 5 prints like "Flying" were selected for the Heilongjiang Print Exhibition in Hong Kong.
• 1994 - The print "Drunk" was selected for the 8th National Fine Arts Exhibition.
• 1995 - The print "Drunk" won the copper prize in the second National Minorities Fine Arts Exhibition.
• 1995 - The print "Lucky Day" was selected for the 12th National Print Exhibition, and won a prize at the China-Korea Contemporary Print Exhibition in the same year.
• 1997 - The print "Midwinter" won an outstanding prize at the provincial exhibition for the celebration of the return of Hong Kong to mainland China.

More than a hundred prints by the artist are in national Chinese museums like the Chinese Art Museum or the Daioyutai State Guest House. Among these works are the prints "Silence", "Snowy House", "First Month of Winter" and "Lucky Day".

Dieter and Yorie

Huang Taihua on the Internet

Moon Night, 1999
copyright Huang Taihua

Les estampes d'Acheng, ville dans la province de Heilongjiang - external link in French

Search for Huang Taihua

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