For the half-a-century leading up to the 1980s, prints were an invaluable "instrument" for rousing and informing the people during China's revolutionary upheavals.

The popularity of the art form decreased sharply in the 1980s as the country focused on economic development rather than political movements. They also never sold as well as oil paintings.

But once again young Chinese artists are using prints as a medium of varied artistic expression.

It is also receiving wider recognition in the art world. From July 30 to August 15, Professor Yang Feng of the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts, will exhibit a number of his "experimental" prints.

The exhibition, to be held in the Shenzhen Art Museum in south China's Guangdong Province, features 50 of the artist's works.

"Yang depicts the commonly seen articles in our life, and his expression gives us a psychological distance towards the articles, thus stirring the audience's thinking about the value of existence," said Yang Xiaoyang, president of the arts academy in the capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

"With a strong symbolism, Yang's prints in the recent period are very 'revolutionary'," said Chu Xiaoping, a Xi'an-based art critic.

In his early periods Yang made rather traditional prints, based on stories from Chinese history.

Born in 1960 in east China's Zhejiang Province, Yang graduated from the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts in 1984. Over the following years he won several national awards for his prints, including the prestigious Lu Xun Print Award in 1999.

His works have been shown in national galleries in France, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Norway, and collected by the British Wood Print Foundation and many Chinese museums.

"Yang Feng made such great changes in his style and began the experimentation in a special environment," remarked Yang Xiaoyang. "The Chinese print-makers have passed the 'vigorous' period of 'campaigns,' and reached a phase of experimentation at a deeper level."

(China Daily July 29, 2003)