Heshi Yu Signed Cityscape Print, Framed Mid-Century Modernist Serigraph

A framed signed editioned cityscape print by Heshi Yu (Yu Heshi, Chinese-American, b. 1935) — a major figure in late-20th-century Chinese-American modernist printmaking and one of the New York Chinese painters who built international reputations in the postwar period. The composition is unmistakably from Yu's signature body of work: a luminous concentric sun/moon disc anchoring the left field, set against a dense, woven architectural thicket of glyph-like marks, hatched rectangles, and stylized urban forms across the right — the stylized cityscape language Yu returned to throughout his print editions of the 1970s and 1980s in titles such as The Town, Metropolis, Golden City, and Castle in the Hills. Pulled in a warm earth palette of putty, taupe, and oxide tones with a single restrained pop of rust orange. Pencil-signed in the lower margin in the artist's hand.

About the artist. Heshi Yu (also indexed as Yu Heshi) was born in Shandong in 1935 and trained first at the Art Department of National Taiwan Normal University, then continued his studies at l'École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He moved to New York in 1968 and devoted himself to a mature studio practice that fused the literati landscape tradition with Western modernist abstraction. In 1976 Lincoln Center commissioned a Yu serigraph to mark the American Bicentennial, and over the following decades he became one of the most actively collected Chinese painters working in the New York art world, with exhibition history across Taiwan, mainland China, Japan, Europe, and the United States. His work appears at auction at houses including Ravenel (Taipei), Heritage, Bonhams, and Doyle, and is held in private and corporate collections across both sides of the Pacific.

About the cityscape series. Yu's stylized urban landscapes are his most recognized and most collected work — hand-signed limited-edition serigraphs and lithographs (typically editions of 250) that translate the layered geometry of densely built cities into a near-abstract pictogram vocabulary. The compositional device used here — a single luminous celestial disc set against a packed, glyphic city field — is the central trope of the series. The work sits squarely in the same conversation as Lebadang, Zao Wou-Ki's graphic work, and the broader school of Chinese-modernist printmakers who emerged from the Paris–New York axis in the 1960s and 70s.

A defining mid-century-meets-modernist piece for collectors of Chinese-American postwar art, signed editioned prints, or modernist graphics. Lands beautifully over a credenza, a reading chair, or as the centerpiece of a small gallery wall. The neutral palette plays equally well with walnut mid-century pieces, contemporary boucle upholstery, and traditional millwork. Original gilt wood frame with linen liner; minor wear consistent with age — see detail photos.

Dimensions:
Frame: 21" H × 29" W × 1.5" D
Artwork (visible image): 19.75" H × 27.75" W

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