Breaking news: On November 10, 2025, China Guardian's "Contemporary Art Evening Sale" officially commenced. Huang Rui's "Street Production Team's Embroidery Workers," estimated at CNY 2,200,000-3,200,000, hammered down at CNY 2,300,000, and sold for CNY 2,645,000 including commission.Breaking personal auction record(Breaking the record held by Christie's Hong Kong "New Era Woman" magazine on May 29, 2011, at HKD 1,340,000).

In the autumn of 1978, Huang Rui, along with poets Bei Dao and Mang Ke, launched an independent literary magazine called *Today*, serving as its art editor and creating the cover. This led him to meet young artists such as Ma Desheng, Zhong Acheng, and Chi Xiaoning. Huang Rui's courtyard became their regular meeting place, inspiring him to organize an art exhibition—"an exhibition that would shake the nation." This is the origin of the "Stars Art Exhibition"—initiated by Huang Rui and Ma Desheng in 1979. The bold style of the exhibited works greatly shocked audiences accustomed to realist painting. The title "Stars" emphasizes the existence of stars as independent luminaries, and even more so, the artists' avant-garde stance and attitude.

On September 27, 1979, the "Stars Art Exhibition" opened outside the walls of the National Art Museum of China, causing a sensation. The works were displayed outdoors on the iron fence of a small park to the east of the museum. It was abruptly halted two days later, but left a profound mark on Chinese art. Due to the twists and turns and the sensation of the first "Stars" exhibition, Huang Rui quickly began preparing for the second exhibition and attempted to explore new styles of painting. Compared to the simple and intense expressions of Ma Desheng and Wang Keping in the "Stars" exhibition, Huang Rui preferred to place himself in a more complex and diverse position. Thus, at the end of that year, he completed "The Sound of the Piano" (1979, collection of the Centre Pompidou), which combines the styles of Cézanne and Cubism, and the vibrant texture of the painting is exciting.

Following this, he attempted to create a larger, more complete work. In Huang Rui's vision, "it should be a new challenge with a three-dimensional style, addressing social themes, thereby finding or restoring my representative position in exhibitions." Thus, "Embroidery Workers in a Street Production Group" was created. Looking back at this painting from today's perspective, it truly perfectly realizes Huang Rui's vision. At the same time, its unique perspective, distinct from other works of the same era, has become a unique mark of the times. Huang Rui depicts a group of embroidery workers in the painting, both dramatic and elegantly realistically capturing the vibrant scene of the era.

Following the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee at the end of 1978, the "reform and opening-up" policy was fully implemented, and the state-owned economic system shifted towards collective and privatized operations. People from all walks of life quickly responded to the national call, organizing various production cooperatives, and the import and export business of the State Arts and Crafts Corporation was also contracted out. The scene depicted in this work took place next to Huang Rui's home, where seven or eight female workers squeezed into a small eight-square-meter room, skillfully embroidering flowers on some fabric. This deeply moved Huang Rui at the time. The young girls were simply dressed, but their hands created vibrant and colorful fruits of labor. They supported China's economic development with their efforts and were the most primitive form of "Made in China." Before putting brush to paper, Huang Rui had not seen any original Cubist works, but through printed materials, he became captivated by them and grasped the Cubist concept of deconstructing perspective.

In "The Embroidery Worker of the Street Production Team," he strives to create a central point: the woman on the right looks directly at the viewer, inviting dialogue, and the movement expands outward from the center. The compact placement, along with the parts of the form cut off by the image, showcases the small size and enclosed nature of the hut, recreating a specific scene from that era. But a young heart cannot be closed off; the movement of color blocks and lines presents an open state, or rather, a rhythmic movement, revealing Huang Rui's interest in space. The highly prominent red and gray tones are also the colors of that era in Huang Rui's eyes. Amidst the red walls of the past and the concrete of the present, vibrant colors such as rising purple and green are interspersed, conveying the theme through the composition of the painting, allowing the beauty of two-dimensional expression to transcend the thematic framework, foreshadowing Huang Rui's future path of abstraction. The artist has gathered the complex feelings of that time into the work, creating a painting full of power and imaginative space, a precious testament to the era.
 

It broke the record set by Christie's Hong Kong on May 29, 2011, for HKD 1,340,000 for "New Era Woman".

About the artist

Huang Rui, born in 1952, is from Beijing. He is one of the most controversial artists in the history of contemporary Chinese art. His "Stars Art Exhibition," launched in 1979, pioneered contemporary Chinese art. He has always been committed to the social responsibility of artists and the creation of avant-garde styles. The second "Stars Art Exhibition" was held in 1980. In 1984, Huang Rui moved to Japan, and in 1989, he held a "Stars Ten Years" commemorative exhibition in Hong Kong. The "Stars Art Exhibition" can be seen as the beginning of contemporary Chinese art and a symbol of the independence of contemporary Chinese artists. (Note: The last sentence about an actor, professor at Sichuan University's School of Chemical Engineering, magician, and a celebrity teacher at Minzu University of China is unrelated and appears to be a separate, unrelated fragment.)

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