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Lot Essay
“Though I only visited the Huangtu Gaoyuan (Loess Plateau) for the first time last year, the vast land of loess and the rolling stream of the Yellow River, make me feel that I’m not a novelty-hunting tourist, but a descendent of the land of Emperors Yan and Huang.”
In search of artistic inspirations, Wu Guanzhong went on his first ever journey to the Loess Plateau, specifically Hequ region in Northern Shanxi province in October 1989. The artist immediately felt connected to the land and his identity as a Chinese, whose cultural prosperity originated along the Yellow River Valley. Different from the ones in the same series that have stronger tonality, with lines and dots that seem to jump out of the painting surface, this work was rendered in a rather effortless manner, testified by light washes of colours and slightly looser composition. Yet the liberally rendered lines, which indicate the swift speed of brushwork, set the picture in motion.
The painting is dominated by seemingly casually-disposed lines, jagged and swirling in shape, which vividly depict textures of loess and water. Light washes of ink bring out the chiaroscuro effect of the landscape in darkness, while that of yellow paint echos the colour of loess and evokes a moonlit ambience. What is presented to the viewer is a peaceful, meditative scene: stream flows gently through the sinuous water channel imbedded in the plateau that is crisscrossed with ravines and gullies - the birthplace of Chinese culture draped in a sheer veil of golden moonlight. The coarse outline of loess is further enhanced by the dry brush technique, and the softer contours of rocks in the river due to water erosions, are freehandedly rendered with washes of ink. A few minimalistically depicted yaodongs (cave dwellings) spread sporadically in the middle ground and background, their minute sizes in drastic contrast to the vast landscape.
Wrought with nods to Eastern and Western aesthetics and techniques that he had integrated through his experiences, juxtaposing distinct yet interwoven elements from the two realms has become one trademark of Wu’s work. On one hand, the composition of this painting calls to mind that of the handscroll format of a traditional Chinese landscape painting. On the other hand, the illustration of depth by bringing the river’s winding into focus using linear perspective technique is indigenous to the arena of Western art. The slightly abstracted scenery contains a high degree of ambiguity, which engages the viewers’ imaginations in a similar manner as voids of a Chinese literati painting. It prioritises the expressionism of subject-matter, be it the essence of beauty, a degree of self-cultivation or a state of mind, over realistic pictorial representations of things.
In search of artistic inspirations, Wu Guanzhong went on his first ever journey to the Loess Plateau, specifically Hequ region in Northern Shanxi province in October 1989. The artist immediately felt connected to the land and his identity as a Chinese, whose cultural prosperity originated along the Yellow River Valley. Different from the ones in the same series that have stronger tonality, with lines and dots that seem to jump out of the painting surface, this work was rendered in a rather effortless manner, testified by light washes of colours and slightly looser composition. Yet the liberally rendered lines, which indicate the swift speed of brushwork, set the picture in motion.
The painting is dominated by seemingly casually-disposed lines, jagged and swirling in shape, which vividly depict textures of loess and water. Light washes of ink bring out the chiaroscuro effect of the landscape in darkness, while that of yellow paint echos the colour of loess and evokes a moonlit ambience. What is presented to the viewer is a peaceful, meditative scene: stream flows gently through the sinuous water channel imbedded in the plateau that is crisscrossed with ravines and gullies - the birthplace of Chinese culture draped in a sheer veil of golden moonlight. The coarse outline of loess is further enhanced by the dry brush technique, and the softer contours of rocks in the river due to water erosions, are freehandedly rendered with washes of ink. A few minimalistically depicted yaodongs (cave dwellings) spread sporadically in the middle ground and background, their minute sizes in drastic contrast to the vast landscape.
Wrought with nods to Eastern and Western aesthetics and techniques that he had integrated through his experiences, juxtaposing distinct yet interwoven elements from the two realms has become one trademark of Wu’s work. On one hand, the composition of this painting calls to mind that of the handscroll format of a traditional Chinese landscape painting. On the other hand, the illustration of depth by bringing the river’s winding into focus using linear perspective technique is indigenous to the arena of Western art. The slightly abstracted scenery contains a high degree of ambiguity, which engages the viewers’ imaginations in a similar manner as voids of a Chinese literati painting. It prioritises the expressionism of subject-matter, be it the essence of beauty, a degree of self-cultivation or a state of mind, over realistic pictorial representations of things.