Mao Decorated 1993

Yu Youhan made this painting, Mao Decorated, using a flat array of colours, like peach, red and green. You can almost feel the artist building the image, shifting around the colours, experimenting with placing Mao’s head against the floral design. I wonder, what might Yu Youhan have been thinking as he made it? The paint application seems quite thin, creating a smooth surface that is almost like a screen-printed image. There’s something about the repetition of the floral motif that echoes Warhol, but also feels connected to Chinese textile patterns. The red blossoms, in particular, seem to jump forward. The way the different coloured shapes are arranged gives the painting this crazy rhythm. It reminds us that artists are always in dialogue with each other, borrowing and remixing ideas across different eras. Each mark is like a thought, a tiny piece of a larger conversation.