Yu Youhan

The body of work produced by painter Yu Youhan is an example of the Political Pop movement in China. Though his early paintings were chiefly abstract, Yu moved away from the style during the 1990s and instead embarked upon a series of bright, Warholian-inspired Mao Zedong portraits, which garnered global acclaim. In Yu’s various handlings, Mao is depicted against neon-colored or floral settings, and by thus rendering the Chairman, Yu draws distinct lines between Chinese politics, Western art history, and global commodification.

Beyond Mao, Yu’s other subjects include Chinese currency, bicycles, and playing cards, and since the early 2000s, Yu has returned to abstract painting in order to explore traditional Chinese landscape painting in a new and innovative manner. 

Yu’s work has been exhibited worldwide. Selected exhibitions include those staged at Korea’s National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, the Netherland’s Groninger Museum, Australia’s Queensland Art Gallery, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, and Kunstmuseum Bern, as well as the International Biennial of Sao Paulo and the Venice Biennale.