Hunan Museum held exhibition to honor heroes in the battle against COVID-19
Shu Yong’s art exhibition “Tribute to Heroes” kicked off in Hunan Museum on June 18th, 2020. The exhibition highlighted in total 149 Chinese ink and wash paintings created by Shu themed with heroes during the COVID-19 and the debut of his painting a community of shared destiny , which is based on his sculpture Golden Bridge on Silk Road. Along with those displayed were some donated items given to Hunan Museum by the fifth Hunan medical team dispatched to support Hubei in fighting COVID-19.
The opening ceremony was attended by guests such as Huang Lanxiang, member of the Standing Committee of Hunan Provincial Party Committee, Xie Yong, member of the Supervision and Justice Committee of the NPC as well as leaders from Hunan Literary Federation, Hunan Museum and Hunan Photographers Association etc. During the ceremony, Duan Xiaoming, director of Hunan Museum officially received the donated works from Shu Yong: America, Japan and Germany and issued the donation certificate for him.
This exhibition, guided by China Foundation for Peaceful Development and co-held by organizations such as Hunan Museum, Hunan Artists Association and Hunan Photographers Association, will last until June 23rd.
Partly in response to the call that artists should create COVID-19 related works to encourage people and cheer them up during the pandemic, Shu began his “one painting a day” routine since January 26th to express his respects to numerous selfless medical workers. 
“From now on, I will draw a paining everyday and I will send all of them to the heroes later”. Those works interpret updating news in the form of Chinese landscape painting, well blending the traditional cultural images such as The Great Wall and Yellow Crane Tower. As an widely recognized art form exclusive to China, landscape painting embodies the communication between human beings and nature, and thus, it can better resonate with people.
“It is the mission of a contemporary artist to spread the vision of community with shared future for mankind and to promote the advance of the whole society. As a Chinese artist, it is my responsibility to make our voice heard by the outside world. ”
Driven by the social responsibility, Shu has been focusing on advocating modern Chinese spirits and it wasn’t the first time for him to create the similar works.
In 2003, Shu’s work Brick Wall caught worldwide attentions, which showed the cultural link between China and the rest of the world. Later his sculpture Golden Bridge on Silk Road was chosen as one of the symbols for Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. His other works like CHINA KONGFU also shocked the art world.
“ ‘Contemporary Chinese spirit’ has been a dominant theme of my creation for the past 20 years. And now it is my duty to probe into the spirit during the fight against COVID-19 ” Shu said. He planned to make an exhibition tour around China to make the heroic spirit and wisdom known to more. “This series of works are of great historical significance. Hopefully, they will provide valuable materials for future people to study our society today.”
During this special crisis, Hunan Museum took initiative to shoulder social responsibility and boosted morale of people in fighting against the disease. The museum organized a series of public activities such as sending cultural products to heroes, collecting items that witnessed the COVID fight, giving special offers to medical workers and their family members, all of which well displayed the cultural strength and spirit of the museum.
Brief introduction of the artist
Shu Yong , born in Xupu county, Hunan province is a famous contemporary artist. He enjoys many titles such as director of Chinese Artists Association, vice president of Chinese Social Art Association, member of Hunan Artists Association, artistic consultant of Hunan Photographers Association as well as the guest professor of Central South University.
Shu’s representative works include the large-scaled public art Chinese Power, sculpture group CHINA KONGFU, Brick Wall as well as the Golden Bridge on Silk Road. His works were exhibited in more than 30 countries and areas like America, Britain, France, Russia and Italy.
Free from complexity, Shu’s works created an enormous artistic tension through repetition and recombination. Real art, he thinks, is not just about something visible. More importantly, it should present thoughts and ideas, which are the ultimate power of human development.
By mixing up elements in politics, commerce, social media, social idealism and his own body, he created a lot of works brimming with absurdness and magnificence. Those works, lingering between abstractness and concreteness, simplicity and obscurity, vividly present the changes and developments of Chinese society over the past 20 years, helping us to feel the throbbing life of this era.
