Artwork Description

Title: Empty White
Artist: Lu Yu
Date: 2016
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 30 x 30 cm (11.8 x 11.8 in)

1. Artwork Identification
Empty White is a minimalist acrylic painting by Lu Yu that presents a spatial illusion using muted green hues and a stark white ground. A central portal-like form draws the viewer’s eye inward, while a single blue object at the base suggests quiet narrative tension amidst an otherwise silent space.

2. Artistic Style and Influences
Lu Yu employs a minimalist visual language, drawing from geometric abstraction and spatial experimentation. The work's restrained palette and flat planes create a meditative composition, reminiscent of conceptual and post-minimalist traditions. The visual simplicity is deceptive—it invites prolonged contemplation, subtly challenging perceptions of volume, depth, and presence.

3. Historical Context
Created in 2016, Empty White belongs to a broader contemporary movement in China where abstraction and conceptual practices have begun to reassert themselves within the historically figurative and expressive Chinese art scene. Lu Yu’s work reflects this shift, contributing to dialogues around materiality, spatial consciousness, and the aesthetic of absence.

4. Provenance
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

5. Condition and Conservation
The artwork is in very good condition. The canvas surface is smooth, colors are crisp, and no signs of wear or restoration are visible.

6. Artistic Significance
With its serene precision and contemplative spatial logic, Empty White distills the essence of reductionist painting. Lu Yu’s subtle interplay between geometry, negative space, and color demonstrates a refined sensitivity to formal balance and psychological resonance. The result is a quiet yet compelling meditation on emptiness and perception.