Wu Yinxian, a giant photographer who has walked with the century, his life is like a magnificent epic of light and shadow, which condenses the process of Chinese photography art and film creation from its inception to vigorous development.
Recently, the "Light Chaser: A Retrospective Exhibition of Wu Yinxian's Image Art Road" was unveiled at the Art Museum of Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy, featuring nearly 150 works by Wu Yinxian in the field of photography over the past 70 years. These works not only record the magnificent picture of the earth-shaking changes that have taken place in Chinese society, but also become exemplary works and precious visual documents in the course of modern Chinese history. During the exhibition, which coincides with the birthday of the Communist Party of China and the Army Day, these historical images will take people back to the past eventful years, appreciate the magnificent scroll of history, feel the majestic power of the red spirit, and the ingenuity and revolutionary feelings of a master photographer.
Wu Yinxian lived in an era when the Chinese nation struggled to rise from the abyss of suffering and move towards national liberation and rejuvenation. In his more than 70-year artistic career, he has recorded the history of the Chinese Revolution and the changes of modern society with his camera and camcorder, captured the true face of social life, and created a large number of video artworks full of the spirit of the times with his profound artistic attainments.
The exhibition is curated by art critic Xu Mingsong, who summarizes and presents the artist's lifelong artistic creations, which are divided into three units: "Search: Shanghai Period (1920-1937)", "Soldier: Yan'an Period (1938-1948)", and "Cornerstone: Beijing Period (1949-1994)", presenting the Shanghai landscape in the 30s of the 20th century, portraits of leaders, important historical moments, and During the Anti-Japanese War, the military and civilian life in the border areas and the development of socialist construction and other themes, combined with documentary materials and chronological timelines, vividly display Wu Yinxian's artistic career and pay tribute to this master of photography.
From a young student studying in Shanghai to a photographer who captures the beauty of life; from the affected left-wing literary and artistic youth to heroic model workers who fought bravely for the party's revolutionary cause; After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was the founder and educator of China's film industry. People can see from the exhibition that Wu Yinxian's classic works such as "Dr. Bethune", "Hard Pioneering", "Pagoda Mountain", "Reclamation" and "Brother and Sister Reclamation" are like seals of history, each of which shines with the glory of that era, attracting people to stop and look back and reminisce fondly. This light chaser responds to the pulse of the times with his lens, from "Children of the Storm" and "Angel on the Road" to "Yan'an and the Eighth Route Army", "Nanniwan", and then to "Red Flag Spectrum" and "Camel Xiangzi". His video works are like epics of light and shadow, connecting the great journey of a country from turmoil to rebirth. These precious works are not only a testimony to history, but also contain an endless power to inspire people to move forward, showing Wu Yinxian's keen capture of historical moments, and how he uses photography to document the times and convey humanistic care.
The exhibition takes Wu Yinxian's artistic career as the main line, through the selection of his representative works and in-depth interpretation of his artistic thoughts, presents to the audience the unremitting will of a great "light chaser" to pursue light throughout his life, presents his deepest love for the motherland and the people, and then shows Wu Yinxian's artistic process and unremitting spirit of exploration, so that people can understand his important influence and contribution to Chinese photography art, appreciate the artistic beauty of his epic of light and shadow, and further reveal the aesthetic significance and contemporary cultural value of Wu Yinxian's image road.