Volume 17–1 (Low Res).pdf

Considering the tender age at which she
started to demonstrate her gifts, Yani
qualifies as a genuine child prodigy, even
though the concept of a prodigy in visual
arts is unprecedented. We know of prodigies
in music; almost every recognized
virtuoso was accomplished at an early age.
Mathematical geniuses also show their
aptitude at a tender age, and dancers must
be on their toes early on or forget the
dream altogether. But in the field of visual
arts, even such giants as Michelangelo,
Picasso, MirO and Klee didn't show their
stuff until their adolescent years.
Especially in China, the celebration of a
child's talents is entirely unexpected. In
old China, age and experience—not youth
—were revered. To become a painter, a
novice trained under the guidance of a
master artist for years, until he gained the
grace and agility to reproduce the traditional
brush strokes and washes that were
esthetically acceptable. And in modern
Communist China, the cult of the individual
and self-expression have been anathema.
Yet Yani is recognized and treated like a
national treasure in China today, because
she had the good fortune to be born at the
right time, in the right place and into the
right family.
She was just one year old when Mao
Zedong, fanatic chairman of the Communist
Party died. With his death, a fresh new
wind blew through the land. The government
eased its stranglehold on the arts.
Master painters, weary of the injunction to
work only in a social realist mode, returned
to their work with renewed interest and
creativity. Educators welcomed experimentation,
and eagerly encouraged precocious
skills and fantastic visions such as Yani's.
The fact that the Wang family lived in one of
the most geographically dramatic terrains
in China, close by Guilin and the Li River
with its legendary mountains and mists,
was no small inspiration to romantic and
impressionable Yani. But most of all, it was
her genetic inheritance, coupled with the
loving support of her family, that provided
her with the nurturing environment a developing
artist needs at any age, anywhere
in the world.
Through the influence of her father, other
noted artists, educators and the Ministry of
Culture of the People's Republic of China,
Yani's talents have been fully celebrated in
China and in parts of the Western world.
She is 14 now, and her work has been exhibited
in major cities of China every year
since she was four. In the past few years,
the Ministry of Culture has also sponsored
exhibitions of her work abroad in West
Germany, England, Japan, Singapore and
the United States. Her most recent exhibit
opened last year at the Arthur M. Sackler
Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington, D.C., and will be seen in 1990
The Bananas Have Not
Come Out Yet (1983-84)
HEADLINE: ITC NOVARESE MEDIUM ITALIC, BOLD TEXT/FOOTNOTE:
MEDIUM, MEDIUM ITALIC CAPTIONS: BOLD; BOLD ITALIC
at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas
City, Missouri and the Asian Art Museum in
San Francisco, California.
Anyone unable to enjoy Yani's paintings "in
the flesh" will find the book, Yani: The Brush
of Innocence* a rewarding substitute. It is
generously illustrated with 77 colorplates
and 52 black and white
reproductions of her work.
Equally engaging is the
scholarly and illuminating
commentary contributed
by artists, educators and
child psychologists.
♦ Last Night! Dreamt I Saw
the Racing Egrets (1986-87)
In all fairness we must observe that Yani, at
age 14, is no longer an innocent. She is a fully
conscious artist, and only time will tell
whether she has reached her prime at this
tender age, or she will continue to stride
courageously into unexplored terrain.
Marion Muller
*Yani: The Brush of Innocence
Published by Hudson Hills
Press, Inc.
230 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10001-7704
144 pages. Hardcover. $35
plus tax where applicable.
llYani (Age 14)