wu guanzhong1 (吳冠中, 1919–2010)

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Born in Yixing ( 宜 興 ), Wu Guanzhong traveled to Paris in 1947 to study at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts on a government scholarship. Wu’s style reminiscent of the impressionist painters of the early 1900s with admiration for Braque, Matisse, Utrillo, Gauguin, Cézanne, Picasso, and especially for Van Gogh.  ‘Wu’s paintings have the color sense and formal principles of Western paintings, but a spirit and tonal variations of ink that is typically Chinese. Natural scenery is reduced to its essentials.’Wu introduced aspects of Western art to his students at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, where he taught from 1950 to 1953.  He was appointed a Professor at the Central Institute of Arts and Crafts, Beijing in 1964.  In 1991 Wu was made an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

Do you know ( 吳冠中 , 1919–2010) is one of the best

known contemporary

painters of Chinese origin?  His paintings were exhibited at the British Museum in 1992, which was the first for a living

Chinese artist

Wu is said to have destroyed much of his early work as the Red Army approached his home in 1966. They seized his belongings and forbade him to paint or write. He then spent several years serving hard labor in a rural town. Publicly chided, he was forced to condemn his own work and ideas.As restraints loosened in the early 1970s, Wu rededicated himself to his work, focusing intently on the ancient Chinese medium of ink.

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Wu Guanzhong Spring in South, 2006

As Wu Guanzhong, once said,

“There is no boundary in

terms of art; art belongs to the world, not to a

certain nation or country.”

1995 Yangtze River Delta

Wu Guanzhong Attachment, 2001

Wu Guanzhong Waves 1990

Watertown

"Whenever I am at an impasse, I turn to natural scenery. In nature I can reveal my true feelings to the mountains and rivers: my depth of feelings toward the motherland and my

love toward my people. I set off from my own native village and Lu Xun’s native

soil.“ Wu Guanzhong

Lu Xun's Old Home

Hometown Morning, 1960

A See of Bamboo, 1985 Singapore Art Museum

"Brush-and-ink is misunderstood as being the only choice for life and the

future path of Chinese painting, and the standards of

brush-and-ink painting are used to judge whether any work is good or bad. Brush-

and-ink is a technique. Brushwork is embodied within

technique, technique is not embodied within brushwork,

and technique is only a means that serves the artist

in the expression of his emotions."

Wu Guanzhong

"The beauty of abstract form is extracted from concrete objects and

distilled according to the intrinsic qualities of the

form. The art of root carving retains certain

concrete aspects, and it is considered very beautiful. This is called transforming the common and useless into the marvelous and the quality of abstract beauty is foremost in

creating this effect. On the other hand, we also see

some artworks that transform the marvelous into something common

and useless." Wu Guanzhong

Sound of Countryside, 1993 Singapore Art Museum

"The fundamental elements of formal beauty comprise

form, color, and rhythm. I used eastern rhythms in the

absorption of western form and color, like a snake swallowing an elephant.

Sometimes I felt I couldn’t gulp it all down and I switched to using Chinese ink. This is why in the mid-1970s I began creating a large number of ink paintings. As of today in my explorations I still shift

between oil and ink. Oil paint and ink are two blades of

the same pair of scissors used to cut the pattern for a

whole new suit. To nationalize oil painting and to modernize Chinese painting: in my view these are two s ides of the

same face.“ Wu Guanzhong

Pandas (1992)

Cranes dancing, 2002

Wisteria

Select Quotes of Wu Guanzhong from Abstraction and Form, Meishu (Fine Arts) in 1992, translated by Valerie C. Doran for the exhibition catalogue Revolutionary Ink: The Paintings of Wu Guanzhong (New York: Asia

Society, 2012)

Sound: Zhan-hao Ho, Chen Kang: Butterfly Lovers Concerto (I)

Text and pictures: InternetCopyright: All the images belong to their authors

Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanuwww.slideshare.net/michaelasanda