Yang Mingyi 楊明義 China, 1943

Yang Mingyi was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, and graduated firstly from the College of Arts and Crafts in Suzhou, and then attended the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1981. In 1987 he went to study in the United States and later graduated from the New York Youth Art Students League. He returned to China in 1999, and is now living in Beijing. He is a First-class National Artist and a member of the Chinese Artists’ Association. He is currently the vice president of the Guoyunwenhua Institute of Calligraphy and Painting under the Ministry of Culture of China, and the vice president of the Haihuagui Institute of Painting, a researcher of Wu Guanzhong Art Research Center of Tsinghua University, a fellow of Li Keran Art Academy, and a senior adviser of Luxury Goods Research Center of University of International Business and Economics.

He has pioneered a new style of Chinese ink painting of water towns, and has creatively presented the rich flavor of the water towns of southern China, forming a distinctive and unique personal style, winning the high and wide acclaim of the arts community both at home and abroad, and his impact has been huge. Since the 1980s, he has held over 40 solo exhibitions at home and abroad in Asia, America, Europe etc., and has published over 40 kinds of picture albums and anthologies. His works have been selected many times for national art exhibitions and international exhibitions.

In 1982 his works “Southern China Fishing Village” and “Fragrant Gardenia” were selected for the first exhibition of Chinese works at the French Spring Salon Art Exhibition, and his ink painting “West Lake in Hang Zhou” created in 1989 was selected to be printed as a special stamp to be issued at the 10th World Post Expo in Washington and in Hangzhou, China. Yang Mingyi has been honoured with the following awards: “The Gold Medal at the Sino-Japanese Painting and Calligraphy Exchange Exhibition”, “The Silver Medal at the 20th Century Asia-Pacific Art Exhibition”, and “Award of World Chinese Art”, and in 2000 he won a “20th Century Artistic Contribution Award Medal” awarded by the U.S. Asia-Pacific Center for the Arts, and “the 5th Global Chinese Culture and Arts Heritage Award”. For his creation of the “Festival in Water Town” in 1978, in which he discovered Zhouzhuang and presented it to the world, he was applauded by the critics as “the first discoverer of Zhouzhuang”, and has obtained the title of Honorary Citizen of Zhouzhuang. His works have been collected by Chinese and foreign art galleries and academies of fine arts such as The National Art Museum of China, The National Museum of China, The Great Hall of the People, Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum, Suzhou Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The British Museum in London, and many private collectors and social celebrities including the former U.S. President George Bush and his wife. On April 15, 2006, at the opening ceremony of the Paris Chinese Art Week held at the Rambouillet Museum of France, Yang Mingyi, on behalf of the Chinese Artists delegation, presented his works on Southern China water towns to the Mayor of Rambouillet, Paris. In 2008, his work “Snowy Night in Suzhou” was selected for The International Art Salon Exhibition at The Louvre, in Paris, and won a special independent artist award after strict selection by the French Artists Association. He then donated this painting to the Museum of Suzhou, which is his hometown, for permanent collection. In 2010, he was selected as one of the Ten Persons of the Year at the summit of art of Chinese painting.

Since 1988, his works have appeared at auctions at world-renowned international auction houses such as, Christie’s in New York and Sotheby’s International auction house.  He became one of the few painters who first entered internationally renowned auction houses, and his works were later introduced into Chinese auction houses such as Guardian, Poly, Rongbao, Huachen, Hanhai, Sungari, etc., and have achieved excellent auction results. 

He has published a number of writings and picture albums, including “The Artistic World of Yang Mingyi”, “Suzhou Fishermen’s Song”, “Painted Fans by Yang Mingyi”, “Four Seasons”, “Dreams of Hometown”, “Portfolio of Yang Mingyi’s Sketches", “Ink Paintings on Water Towns”, “Color Edition of Sketches at Jinrilou”, “Trip with Ink Painting”, “Water Towns”, “Yang Mingyi Painting about Water Towns”, “Poetic Southern China”, “Southern China Out of Print”, “100 Bridges In Southern China,” “Yang Mingyi’s Calligraphic Works”, “Yang Mingyi Paintings about Zhouzhuang”, “Yiemao - Yang Mingyi’s Calligraphy”.

楊明義擅山水，多以江南水鄉風光入畫，所作筆墨淋漓，格調清新典雅，富有濃郁的抒情意味和鄉土氣息。他首創新一代風格的水墨水鄉中國畫，創造性地表現江南水鄉的濃郁韻味，形成了鮮明、獨特的個人畫風，深得國內外藝術界的高度評價和廣泛讚譽，影響巨大。自上世紀80年代以來，楊明義作品多次入選全國美展和國際重要展覽，並在亞、美、歐各地舉辦個人畫展近40次，出版各類畫冊、文集40餘種。1982年作品入選中國首次赴法國春季沙龍畫展。1988年起，他的作品進入世界知名的紐約佳士德、蘇富比國際拍賣行，成為國內少數幾位最早進入國際知名拍賣行的畫家。