Creating of an eternal audience

Huang died on June 13, 2023, at the age of 99. His farewell to the world was quiet. His family announced his death in a statement released the following day, and no memorial service was held.

In an earlier televised interview, Huang envisaged his centennial exhibition, saying, "It will show 100 paintings, to celebrate the 100 years I have lived. I will show work in which I've invested all my energy. I will be doing my best, but maybe the pieces will not be perfect as far as the audience is concerned. But hopefully, people will feel they are not bad, and that will be enough for me."

The earliest painting currently on show was finished in 2015, and the most recent was completed a few weeks before his death, demonstrating his lifelong passion for art, and for sharing that pleasure with the public.

The paintings are vividly colored, often highly saturated, and feature recurring motifs from his work popular with his audience over the years, such as lotus flowers, immortals and animals.

They are also a reiteration of his ambition to create, which lasted until the final moments of his life. Several paintings on show are over 1 meter in length, some even over 2 meters — quite a challenge for a man of his age.

Born in Changde in Hunan province, Huang left home in his early teens to earn a living doing a variety of jobs, including stints at ceramic factories, primary schools and theater groups — and also learned to paint and to make woodcuts.

He gained the most from his wartime experiences, the social vicissitudes of the 20th century China, and from the people of different backgrounds he met along the way.

According to Shao Dazhen, critic and professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, where Huang taught for decades, his art and writing reflects "the realities of the world, in a straightforward manner, with no pretense".

"He loved people and he loved life deeply, but he expressed this in a peaceful way. He spoke for the public, when he painted and wrote," Shao says. "His work is sincere, interesting and appealing. It is unparalleled."