Yuan Yunsheng was born in 1937 in Nantong, Jiangsu Province. He graduated in 1962 from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), where he studied under Dong Xiwen. In 1979, Yuan participated in the mural project at Beijing Capital Airport and later taught at the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts and the Mural Painting Department of CAFA. His Xishuangbanna Line Drawing Figures and the large-scale airport mural Water-Splashing Festival: An Ode to Life attracted significant attention from both the artistic and intellectual communities. From 1982 to 1988, Yuan was invited to the United States, where he taught at Tufts University, the University of Massachusetts, Smith College, and Harvard University. During this period, he created numerous ink and mixed-media works on paper. In September 1996, Yuan returned to China at the invitation of CAFA, where he taught in the Fourth Studio of the Oil Painting Department. He undertook research on The Replication of Traditional Chinese Sculpture and the Establishment of a Contemporary Chinese Art Education System, and sought inspiration and new artistic insights from non-calligraphic and non-painting visual traditions in Chinese art, including traditional sculpture, murals, engraved stone reliefs, and brick carvings.

In 1979, Yuan Yunsheng’s mural Water-Splashing Festival: An Ode to Life, created for Beijing Capital Airport, sparked significant controversy due to its stark contrast with the artistic conventions of the previous era. His 14 years of living and working in the United States profoundly influenced his artistic philosophy and visual language. However, he remained committed to advancing his creative practice through an Eastern perspective. Solitude is a pivotal work in Yuan’s artistic career. At the center of the composition is a massive form—seemingly human, yet also resembling a beast—as if it has emerged from an intense internal struggle and is now in a state of quiet resolution. On the ground, a dark mass appears to be a discarded old skin, or perhaps an unborn fetus, still undergoing a painful gestation. The work not only reflects Yuan’s engagement with and study of Western art during his time abroad but also demonstrates a distinct Eastern subjectivity that diverges from Western cultural frameworks. It embodies a celebration of vitality and an exploration of ultimate existential pursuits, continuing the philosophical reflections that have been a consistent thread in his work since the Beijing airport mural.