FROM DOLOMITES TO CHINA:
THE ART UNITES EAST AND WEST

Hu Jinxing

Master Yu Jihan, in 45 years of artistic practice, has created a sort of chase with himself, in which he strove to break the chains of traditional painting and of calligraphy form. These efforts in research and innovation have led him to the expression of a single language.
For Master Yu the beginning of free hand Chinese painting in calligraphy began in 1990: a singgle ink stroke is sufficient for him to create works of infinite daydream. When we look at his works, we immerse ourselves in the creation of passion scenes; sometimes thick and black, made with light ink, with nuances of relative permeability, with the rhythmic cadence of flowing lines that create on paper the most various and assorted shapes. In the continuation of the intervals of black and white, in their extrusion, the beauty of lines emerges as it happens when one searches for beauty of Nature and finds its sounds. This language is beyond time and space, beyond geography; it is in the heart of aesthetics, where people feel.
Yu Jihan's art consists of a male force, of justice and great beauty; it is a kind of spiritual sublimation that brings us closer to understanding Nature and life.
In October 2011 the Master of calligraphy Yu Jihan was presented in a solo exhibition in Trento, (Italy), with a project organized by the Shanghai China-Italy interchange association, the Culture department of the Italian Consulate General in Shanghai, by the provincial government, Beiqi Na, and with the sponsorship of the Italian associations Arci del Trentino and CasadiTutti, at the invitation of the artist Paolo Dolzan. The event was a big success and had favourable feedback in both countries; Mr Xiang Yu, Mayor of Bei Qina awarded the Master with the emblem of the city, the Consul General of the Chinese embassy in Milan, Liang Hui, wrote a poem to congratulate Yu Jihan on this very special occasion. In Trento, the artist was received by many local authorities, such as the Councillor for Culture of the Autonomous Province of Trento, Franco Panizza. In Venice Master Yu Jihan gave a lecture on the art of calligraphy at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he was a guest of professor and artist Paolo Tessari.

A year later, this time in Shanghai, the renowned Italian painter Paolo Dolzan and the Master of Chinese ink, Yu Jihan, meet again, at the Italian Pavillion of the Shanghai World Expo, to renew their cultural exchange. This exhibition is an important event among the cultural exhanges between East and West: rice paper and canvas, ink and painting, set themselves beyond the limits imposed by space and geography. I am confident that this exhibition of the two artists from these two countries is the beginning of a new and beautiful adventure. I wish the event the best success!

 

THE BIG BLACK Paolo Dolzan and Yu Jihan

 

 

The ultimate combination of colour is black; light expresses its maximum in white, black and white, the two opposites of an extreme event that includes all the lights and shadows of the world. This cultural exchange with Italy is promoting the deep historical connection of two great civilizations, bringing it back to its origins. It clears thousands of years of change released in colour, placing them back on canvas and rice paper, passing through fashion and modernity, placing itself beyond geographic and cultural boundaries. Paolo Dolzan, Italy, the painter's paints and the Shanghai ink of Master Yu Jihan are the alternate black and white keys of a piano keyboard, and together they compose a synphony that can overcome the barriers of East and West.