These early abstract works represent a new framing of reality for contemporary China, one that becomes free from the expressions of socialist realism, which controlled art under Maoist China. They are now being re-examined as significant examples of contemporary art deeply rooted in Chinese philosophies and structures setting Huang Rui apart from art of that era.

Thomas Berghuis, curator Guggenheim Museum states in his text for the book Space Structure by Huang Rui, “Huang Rui relates how he ‘wanted to find a spiritual presence through the environment,’ with this ‘spiritual presence’ becoming a ‘painting method.’ Each of the colors further represents a sentiment and a spiritual presence in the artist’s life and the life of people in China coming out of the Cultural Revolution. The red represents the Cultural Revolution and the grey represents the color of childhood and dealing with ‘the story of Beijing.’ Red becomes ‘more political, linking the red walls of the Forbidden City to the Mao Zedong era. For Huang the creative process becomes to render these colors in abstract form, something that would have an impact on other artists in China as well. These include the way in which Huang Rui started to paint the silhouettes of people in paintings such as in the painting Street Corner of 1980; or the Courtyard Story of 1983-2009.

“Huang Rui’s Space-Structure series literally creates a new framing of reality for contemporary China, one that becomes free from the old expressions of socialist realism, which controlled the production art under Maoist China. Abstraction in China thus comes to lead an important aspect of the overall development of contemporary art in China, despite being less well studied in publications outside China. Together with the recent rise of artists in China starting to reconsider abstraction as an important form of artistic expression, this essay has sought to draw renewed attention to the work of Huang Rui as one of the important pioneers of new abstract forms in China, as can be seen through his Space-Structure series that consider the space of painting, and of urban (re)form in China.” (text by Thomas Berghuis, Curator, Guggenheim Museum taken from the book Space Structure 1983-1986 by Huang Rui)