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Waterway

• Artist

  Wu Guanzhong

• Year

  1997

• Media

  Oil on canvas

• Dimensions

  73 x 60 cm

• Museum No.

  FA2002.0012

• Artist Bio

  Wu Guanzhong (1919-2010) was a master painter of the twentieth century in the Chinese and international art circles. Born in Yixing, Jiangsu province, he was admitted to the National Arts Academy of Hangzhou as a young man where he learnt from Lin Fengmian and Pan Tianshou. In 1947, he was the recipient of a national scholarship that put him on the road of further studies in France. His travel companion to France was the sculptor Xiong Bingming. In 1950, Wu Guanzhong decided to return to China through Hong Kong. Since then, he taught at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University, Beijing Academy of Fine Arts and Central Academy of Fine Arts and Crafts respectively. During the Cultural Revolution, Wu was sent to the farmland of Hebei province for hard labour, yet he persisted in painting throughout the days of hardship. He first started painting with oil and then moved on to ink, searching for a way to fuse Eastern and Western art. His works bring together the aesthetics of traditional Chinese ink and modern Western art, pioneering the unique “Wu studio style” and endowing us with a wealth of great classics.

  Wu Guanzhong had an enduring connection with Hong Kong. He visited Hong Kong on many occasions, such as hosting art exhibitions and attending academic seminars and talks by invitation. He made acquaintance with many members of the art circles. He also did sketching on the streets in Hong Kong, and the city is the subject of many of his paintings. In 2002, Wu Guanzhong gave an unprecedented demonstration of landscape sketching at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Unperturbed by bad weather, he captured the Victoria Harbour on paper in the rain. The occasion became a favourite tale of the local art circle. Wu highly rated Hong Kong’s cultural environment, asserting that Hong Kong was a place of fair and equitable systems where people made practical efforts and valued truth. To him, Hong Kong was a confluence where he could “see both the East and the West at the same time”. It is a quality that can also be found in his art creations.

  Wu Guanzhong made it clear that he would leave his best works to the nation and the people. He made several donations of artworks to public museums both in China and overseas during his lifetime. Over the years, he and his family made many donations to the Hong Kong Museum of Art, making up a huge collection of over 450 items. Together with two other paintings acquired earlier and donation from private collector, the Museum now boasts the largest and most diverse collection of works of Wu Guanzhong, as well as one of the key international centres for modern Chinese painting collection and research in the world.

• Description

  Wu Guanzhong travelled across China to sketch the country’s attractive faces, yet he had always been attached to Jiangnan where he was born and raised. Waterway is his idea of a typical Jiangnan settlement.

  He was particularly fond of Jiangnan in early spring when it was shrouded in cool translucent grey. The palette forms a tranquil and harmonious picture with the white walls and black tiles. The red, yellow and green dots, as explained by Wu, adorn the tableau as if they are colourful gems set in the frame. They represent domestic activities in Jiangnan and the colourful laundry. As they account for an extremely small area of the overall silvery-grey setting, they are concentrated colour points and do not dazzle excessively even though they are brilliant tones. These colourful dots later became a signature characteristic of his paintings.

• —Collection of Hong Kong Museum of Art, donated by Mr Wu Guanzhong and his family

• More information
  Hong Kong Museum of Art Google Arts & Culture