Yu Xiaodong（China）

Watching Planes / 2013 / Oil on canvas / 200cm×400cm

Appreciation: In most cases, artists from the mainland of China prefer to sketch pilgrimage of Tibetans and elders rolling the prayer wheels, in similar configurations and lacking of creativities. In fact, today’s Tibetans are more yearning for modern life. The oil painting, Watching Planes, by Chinese artist Yu Xiaodong, indicates the moment when a group of Tibetans looks up to the aircraft passing by blue sky in the plateau. The modeling and costume of the characters retain the traditional features of Tibetan area, while the dynamic and expression are full of curiosity, desire, and vision for modern life. The perfect collaboration, between dramatic expression in realism figures and the stage-like composition in the screen, gives the symbolic meaning of the transformation from traditional to contemporary among Tibetans.（Wang Yong）

Yu Xiaodong born in Shenyang, Liaoning Province in 1963, graduated from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts and is now a professor of the Department of Oil Painting of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts. He has participated in“The Tenth / Twelfth National Exhibition of Fine Arts”,“The Fourth / Fifth Beijing International Art Biennale”, and“Spirit and Character-Modern Chinese Realistic Oil Painting Exhibition”(2004).