Yamin Young was born in 1959 in the city of Shanghai, China. He was a child of eight when the Cultural Revolution began. At the age of seven he had already won international honors in West Germany for his art.
Yamin's father was a sea captain and his mother was a professor at the Suzhou Art Institute. Suzhou is a traditional art center and is known as the Venice of the East. He developed his deep interest in art from his mother. His bold creativity was an inheritance from his father. Yamin's awareness of the world of art burst upon him when his father presented a painting to the little boy which he had brought home from Europe.
Later, Yamin's obsessive motivation to excel in art grew out of his fascination with the Dunhuang Caves in Western China in the Shanxi Province where many master pieces from a series of great Chinese Dynasties were painted on the walls of the caves. Yamin took a large measure of his inspiration from works of art from the Tang Dynasty whose artists painted in simple elegant lines. Some of these paintings have a Matisse like quality. There is an international as well as a distinctive Chinese quality about the Dunhuang art because the caves were positiioned on the famous East West Silk Route, made famous by Marco Polo.
Yamin admires all the great artists and is particularly indebted to Van Gogh, Gaugin and Picasso. Like Monet, the water lily is his favorite flower. He has his own unique style. He likes to please himself and strives to be his own best critic.
Yamin has a list of credits too long to be mentioned here. It should be noted though, that in 1973, at age 13, he placed first in the Shanghai youth art exhibition. He was accepted at the Hongzhou Art Institute, thought by most Chinese artists to be the best in China, but chose to remain in Shanghai and studied at the prestigious Shanghai Art Institute.
Yamin is not limited to any medium. However, he prefers paper, he says, "because it is more creative". He is also gifted in sculpture, etching and wood block art, having studied under the most famous wood block artist in China. Mr. Young is equally at ease in using oils or water colors. His paintings are characterized by movement and vivid colors reflecting his creative individuality. His work has the rare quality of synthesis of the old with the new, the East with the West. He has presented many one man shows in California, where he now lives.
One highly respected artist said of him, "If envy that young man. He is truly a genius."
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