June 14–September 21, 2025
Inside-Out Art Museum 3F
Ticket Price：20 yuan
Group visitors (Above 10 visitors) with reservation to visit at the appointed time.
On July 9, 1979, Liu Haisu, a respected artist deeply admired by Zhao Wenliang and Yang Yushu, visited the exhibition of the No Name Group at Huafang Zhai (the Painted Boat Studio) in Beihai Park. After the viewing, Liu offered high praise and inscribed two calligraphic pieces for the exhibition: “The No Name Group” and “Beauty Is Here.”
Liu Haisu had long been an artist Zhao Wenliang admired. In the winter of 1978, Liu gave a lecture at the Central Institute of Arts and Crafts. Zhao Wenliang, Yang Yushu, Liu Shi, and others attended, bringing their works along in hopes of showing them to Liu. Upon seeing the paintings, Liu described his feelings as “heart leaping with excitement.” He applauded the works, saying, “These works break away from the outdated academic conventions and offer something truly original. The themes are rooted in the love for life, the brushstrokes carry a sense of musical rhythm, and the ruggedness reveals depth and vitality. Even the innocent elements feel authentic and sincere, filled with ideals, potentials, dreams, and longing.” It was in that moment that he recognized Zhao Wenliang and Yang Yushu were continuing to create art despite the dangers, taboos, and obstacles, all while carving out an uncompromised style outside the mainstream. It moved him into a heartfelt delight, the same way “a silver-haired singer in the audience applauding a young talent after a performance,” or “an elderly gardener watching young florists carry new seedlings of flowers to the fair.”
It was because, during the transitional period from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, many venerated artists, having experienced years of political turmoil, began to rebel against ideological austerity by championing “beauty,” thereby seeking the depoliticization of art and the right to free expression. hat is the reason both Liu Haisu and Liu Xun saw in the works of the No Name Art Group not only the beauty of nature and artistic technique but also the beauty of the human spirit. In their eyes, nature and beauty formed the inner landscape of the heart. In 1978, against the backdrop of liberating the mind, an “Aesthetics Fever” began to emerge. A variety of publications appeared in rapid succession as the whole society started to invest a greater passion in aesthetics.
As the eighth research exhibition organized by the Zhao Wenliang and Yang Yushu Art Center, “Beauty Is Here: The Free World of Zhao Wenliang and Yang Yushu” focuses on the creative world of freedom the two artists constructed for themselves from the early 1970s to the early 1980s. To date, we have identified nearly 300 works from this period, a considerable body of work that reaffirms the vital role art played in their survival and existence. As they declared in 1979, when the No Name Group was formed in an exhibition at Huafang Zhai: “Poverty, illness, setbacks, and slander—neither political, economic disadvantages nor setbacks in our time or energy, would shake our determination.”
We have selected over 60 paintings from the hundreds created by Zhao Wenliang and Yang Yushu during this period, revealing glimmers of light that survived a time of harsh repression. These images carry messages from the soul. Over a decade, beauty became a spiritual refuge, sustaining for the two artists a realm of individual freedom. In those difficult years, Zhao and Yang turned inward, discovering landscape and lyricism, painting the innocence of people and the simplicity of everyday life, expressing tender and melancholic emotions, and affirming a human nature that is pure and unadorned. Within these images, the artists entered into repeated dialogue with the objects they portrayed, achieving a spiritual resonance so profound that technique faded into the background like a humble accompanist. hese inward-facing landscapes testify to the artists’ preservation of self and their unwavering commitment to independent thought and creative expression: “a tireless pursuit of freedom and nature, the ideals of ‘authenticity, kindness, and beauty’, ancient and ever new.” This holds a lasting resonance for us today.
Zhao Wenliang& Yang Yushu Art Center
Sponsored by Zhao Wenliang Yang Yushu Art Special Fund, Zhao Wenliang Yang Yushu Art Centre was established on 17 December 2019, and authorized by the Middle Art Foundation to entrust the Middle Art Museum to set up the Academic Committee of “Zhao Wenliang Yang Yushu Art Centre”, which is in charge of archiving, sorting, researching and organizing related academic activities of Zhao Wenliang and Yang Yushu’s works and documents, The academic committee is responsible for archiving, sorting, researching, exhibiting, publishing, and organising related academic activities of Zhao Wenliang and Yang Yushu. The establishment of the special fund and the art centre heralds the beginning of the systematic collation and research on the artistic creation and thoughts of Zhao Wenliang and Yang Yushu, and the initiation of this research will also have a far-reaching impact on the writing of the history of Chinese art in the 20th century.
Artists
Yang Yushu
Yang Yushu was born in Beijing and had developed a strong interest in painting since he was young. He was rejected by art schools for many times due to his “problematic” family background. He went to Xihua art Preparatory School and get acquainted with Zhao Wenliang in 1959 and became Zhao’s first student in 1062, starting their lifelong friendship. Such political movements as Red August (Hongbayue) and Destroy the Four Olds (Posijiu) in 1966 made him even more determined to keep painting. As a member of the No Name Group, he participated in two public exhibitions in 1979 and 1981, and some private exhibitions at friends’ houses in 1980s. After short working experience in 1986, he has been travelling to paint plein air.
Zhao Wenliang（1937-2019）
Artist Zhao Wenliang was born in Harbin. He created literally his first work Tree and Cornfield, when applying to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1956. He was rejected because he commented that paintings at that time were all “stereotyped.” In 1957, he went to Xihua Art Preparatory School to study oil painting. There he got acquainted with Yang Yushu as well as Zhang Da’an and Shi Zhenyu, who later became core members of the No Name Group. They frequently got together to paint plein air all over Beijing. Facing many restrictions in places nearby, they shifted their painting spot to Yuyuantan Park, marking the start of the so-called “Yuyuantan School of Painting.”It was changed to the No Name Group when they mounted an exhibition in 1979. In the following six years, Zhao took care of his sick mother until her passing. After that, he travelled afar to make plein air paintings many times for 20 years. Zhao has devoted his whole life to art and kept painting till he died of illness in 2019.
Curator
Carol Yinghua Lu
Carol Yinghua Lu is a PhD scholar at the University of Melbourne and director of the Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum. She is a contributing editor at Frieze. Lu was on the jury for the Golden Lion Award at the 2011 Venice Biennale and on the jury for the Filipino National Pavilion of 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture. She was the co-artistic director of the 2012 Gwangju Biennale and co-curator of the 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale in 2012. From 2012 to 2015, she was the artistic director and chief curator of OCAT Shenzhen. She was the first visiting fellow in the Asia-Pacific Fellowship program at the Tate Research Centre in 2013. She is one of the first four ARIAH (Association of Research Institute in Art History) East Asia Fellows 2017 at Bard Graduate Center. In 2019, she was on the jury for the Tokyo Contemporary Art Award, Hugo Boss Asia and Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.
Exhibition Photos
View the Exhibition Online
Exhibition Date
Inside-Out Art Museum 3F
Exhibition Time
Wed.-Fri. 11:00-18:00
Sat.-Sun. 10:00-18:00
Last Entry
17:30
Exhibition Location
Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum, No.50 Xingshikou Road, Haidian District, Beijing
Ticket Price
Regular Ticket: 20 RMB per person
Concession: 10 RMB per person
Concessions applied to the following audience members:
Students and teachers, with student ID and teacher ID.
Language
Chinese, English
Barrier-free Access
We provide barrier-free access. Please make an appointment by telephone in advance. Tel: (010) 62730230
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