Wu Tao (1969 – 2001) was born in Shenyang, Liaoning Province in China, committed suicide 10 years ago in Beijing. He had been a Yuan-Ming-Yuan artist in Beijing during 1993 and 1994 after he graduated from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang. The exhibition in 01100001, YOUTH-ON WUTAO includes 22 of his oil paintings, which are almost all he left. His friends Du Jinsu, Kou Qingsheng, Li Dafang, Shi Xining, Wang Xingwei, Xu Ruotao and Zhao Liang also present their own work on the same period as friendship presentation. The exhibition and the book which has the same name are the memories of Wu Tao by his friends, and they hope the art works and the document Wu Tao left could make some contributions to the public if any institute or museum has interest in them.

Wu Tao had destroyed some of his works in different ways. As the particular end of his art career, his works appear a clear slice although incomplete, they are a valuable example for research and understanding the art scene of China in the 1990’s. Wu Tao’s work is not “Political Pop” , “Cynical” or “Gaudy”, which are more well known now, but is about idealism, tragedy and heroism, melting in the macro background constructed by numerous young artists presenting their wish for independent and individual character, showing a more open and universal historical significance. Audiences today may focus more on how Wu Tao set up his individual expression, and how he offers a coordinate to make people introspective in the days of losing the sense of life more and more.

By Zhang Li
Dec. 2011