Mr. Li Yushuang is the oldest son of Li Keran, renowned Master of Chinese painting art. "From and For Nature - Landscape in the perspective of light-code" is the first major solo exhibition dedicated to Mr. Li Yushuang’s sixty years of art creation. It is not only an important response to the artistic heritage and evolution of the artist's father Li Keran, demonstrating the son's further development and breakthrough in art, but also a systematic showcasing of the artistic and scientific research achievements of Li Yushuang. Li, in his 80s, is a contemporary Chinese artist who, unlike many others, persists in creating on the subject of nature and work in nature. Li has an education background in engineering and natural science. He utilizes these systematic and scientific methods in his art. With the help of the insight of science he reaches very deep understanding of the universe and nature.

  

Mr. Fei Dawei, first generation curator of Chinese contemporary art, once commented that Li’s sketches are of top international standard. 

Jin Zhilin, representative artist of the first generation of life painting school in the People’s Republic of China thinks that Li’s style is one of his own kind; he cannot find anyone comparable to Li or contemporary artist of the same significance as his.

  

Yi Ying, professor of western art history at China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts said that no one had ever reached the same level of achievement as Li in the 1980s. Yin Jinan, Director of the School of Humanity at China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts finds that Li did very professional academic research while making artistic efforts to create an ideal state. Zhu Qi, independent curator, thinks that the earlier part of China’s modern fine art history might have to be rewritten since what Li experimented in that period had completely exceeded the time he was in.

 

"From and For Nature - Landscape in the perspective of light-code” is the first comprehensive presentation of 60 years’ outdoor life painting by the artist. The meaning of this exhibition is not restricted to the appreciation of Li Yushuang’s art. It is a spiritual tour allowing us to follow the footpath of the artist in his exploration of the universe and deciphering of the code of nature.

 

The exhibition applies a brand-new concept in the display technique to pay homage to the unique art of Mr. Li Yushuang. Li began his own visual experimentation 60 years ago. He wrote a history in continuation to his father’s research of light. We are presenting this history with concise and delicate design in the exhibition. How did the artist inherit the realm of mountains and waters of Li Keran and blaze new path in his own art? The exhibition will help our visitors to find out the answer through over 40 oil paintings, watercolors, mixed media works and several hundreds of sketches. Besides these works, a digital project between Li Yushuang and contemporary digital artists will open our eyes to the amazing world of “the light code”.

 

The Exploration of the light code consists of three sections: What is the light code, Seeing the light code, and Practice of the light code. We are going to take a look back at the artistic life of Mr. Li and learn about the interplay of artistic exploration and the scientific research which drives his art in an unprecedented direction.

Section 1: What is the light code. During his years long exploration, Li Yushuang finds that what re-present all kinds of matters in the eye of a human being are not their forms, but rather the specific coding of lights and the combination of color data transmitted into the human brains. These combinations of data are decoded by human brain to build forms of various objects that are recognizable to human beings. Li tries to present the color data before they are decoded and thereby liberates painting from "forms" and exposes the original state of all things in nature. Li Yushuang named this the technique of the coding of lights.

The section brings the audience into a formless world of lights and colors. Here you will see the beauty of nature totally new from what you see in your everyday experiences.

Section II: Seeing the light code. Li was a student of natural science. In 1971, he began to research on the relationship between human vision and art. He made models and experimented with visual effects. He gradually built up a unique system of observation and painting techniques based on the coding of lights. It is an accomplishment on the ground of his independent and unconventional explorations and laid a guideline to his art development thereafter.

The section features plenty of his notes, scripts and sketches to represent his scientific research of the human vision and the story of his discovery of the coding of lights.

Section III: Practice of the light code. The discovery of the coding of lights had great impact in Li's art. In the 30 years thereafter, he implemented this theory in his live painting in nature and perfected this system through continuous exploration. The section is a collection of achievements on the basis of the coding of lights theory. The artist has not stopped experimenting and exploring further in this field until today. 

Li Yushuang builds his independent system on the foundation of the coding of lights. This theory is a bridge to the promised land. The artist has reached a true theoretical height. Yet he is not content with the theory. With his perfect skills in art and science, LI Yushuang presents us a glamorous world of colors.