Sweat and talent

Lotus has been a recurring object in Huang Yongyu's works, such as Lotus and Red-crowned Cranes (top) in 2007 and Nine Lotuses (below) in 2011. Photos Provided to China Daily

Things never came easy for celebrated artist Huang Yongyu, but hard work has made him a master even in old age.

Asked to reflect on his decades-long art career, Huang Yongyu stresses every word of his reply: "It has been so toilsome."

His voice is imbued with uncommon seriousness, rather than the humor and wit he usually speaks with.

"I didn't receive adequate schooling, neither did I attend a regular art school. I acquired all my techniques by picking up a little bit from here and a little bit from there," says the accomplished painter, writer and poet.

"It's like an architecture that is not built on solid foundations and has a twisted appearance. It is a weak point but also has formed the distinctive style of my works."

Having just turned 90 in August, Huang still works as diligently as he did in his youth: He spends eight to nine hours a day writing and painting.

He is celebrating his 90th birthday with two publications, a complete collection of his literature and artworks, and the first part of his autobiography. He also has a retrospective exhibition currently on show at the National Museum of China.

At the same venue, he celebrated his 80th birthday with an art show that also toured to Hong Kong.

In addition to the landmark works that made him a household name, the exhibition has dedicated much more space to Huang's creations since 2004.

Huang wrote a calligraphic work in 2009 saying, "The world has grown up, and gosh, I'm getting old." The past decade, however, has witnessed his productiveness and versatility in oil painting, Chinese painting and calligraphy, sculpture, design and glasswork, which haven't withered away despite his aging.

He ranked ninth on this year's Hurun Art List and is among the most expensive Chinese artists alive. Nevertheless, the commercial success is far less enthralling for him than savoring the joy of completing a piece of art.

"Painting is a process which one should do to his heart's content," Huang says. "One should enjoy himself in any cultural activity. Even when writing a tragedy, one should feel satisfied."

He says because he has produced so many works, sometimes he will forget what he painted until he sees the piece on display. Thus, he says, he can't tell people which painting is the most representative of his oeuvre.

At the least, visitors to the ongoing exhibition should not miss two highlight works. One is an ink painting of lotuses that measures 3.67 meters in length and 1.44 meters in height, which Huang just finished a month before the opening.

In the painting Huang adopted baimiao, a technique with which the painter draws in simple ink lines and in no or light colors.

Lotus has been a recurring object in Huang's works. His childhood memories are full of the lotus pool at his maternal grandmother's home. He names his paradise, a Chinese-style manor in Beijing's suburb, Garden of Ten Thousand Lotuses. He says that lotus is quite a unique plant with its leaves, flowers and roots, which "bring many possibilities in composition and require different painting techniques".

Another work, a mural called Great Unity of Chinese People of Various Ethnic Groups, which Huang created in 1959, also deserves much attention, because it is one of the only two Chinese mural works of the 1950s left today.

On Tuesday, the first part of Huang's autobiography, titled A Wanderer over the Carefree Waters - Zhu Que City, was officially launched at the museum by People's Literature Publishing House. It gives a vivid portrait of his childhood in the scenic county of Fenghuang, Hunan province.