Yan Youren – Sculpture and Works on Paper

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Yan Youren, Great Ancients Series, nd

Born in 1943 in Shanghai, Yan Youren graduated in fine art sculpture from Shanghai University, where he studied under one of China’s leading figurative sculptures, Zhang Chongren. Yan is recognized as one of the best figurative sculptors working in the region today, and is credited with merging the classic western sculptural technique with an expressive oriental internality, achieving in the figures a strong emotional content expressed in physical form.

His work takes the human figure as it’s foundation. These figures range in style from the heroic, realist portrait sculptures of noted contemporary Chinese citizens - academics, scientists, politicians and soldiers - through the elongated, Giacometti informed Great Ancients series, onto the expressive, loosely constructed Early Man wire Sculptures. Running through all these styles, is a search for the essence of human life, both individual and collective, and the striving to match this essence with sculptural forms that capture the underlying, fundamental meanings of human experience.

Curated by Estrella Chen of Poly Art Gallery Shanghai / Vancouver