Tsim Sha Tsui

Details

WU GUANZHONG (1919-2010)
Tsim Sha Tsui
Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and colour on paper
88.5 x 67.5 cm. (34 7/8 x 26 5/8 in.)
Inscribed and signed, with two seals of the artist
Dated 1990
Note: Please note that there is a discrepancy between the actual dimensions of the painting and those printed in the publications (124.5 x 82 cm.) in which the work is featured. The length and width ratio corresponds to that of the current painting and the inaccurate dimensions were likely a mistake occurred in the earliest of the publications, and was thereafter replicated in other books and catalogues.

Provenance

Acquired from Zee Stone Gallery, Hong Kong in 1996 by the present owner

Literature

Hong Kong Through the Eyes of Wu Guanzhong, Land Development Corporation, Hong Kong, November 1991, pl.3.
Han Mo Series A12-Paintings of Famous Modern Chinese Artists: Wu Guanzhong/Homeward Bound, Han Mo Xuan Publishing Co., Ltd., Hong Kong, 27 October 1995, p.9.
Art of Wu Guanzhong — 60's-90's, Three Gorges Publishing House, China, September 1996, pl.18.
The Complete Works of Wu Guanzhong Vol. VI, Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, August 2007, p.317.

Exhibited

Hong Kong, Western Market, Land Development Corporation, Hong Kong Through the Eyes of Wu Guanzhong, 1991.

Further Details

THE CENTENNIAL OF WU GUANZHONG’S BIRTH AND HIS LIFELONG SEARCH FOR A NEW ARTISTIC LANGUAGE
Considered the founder of modern Chinese painting, French-trained Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong (1919-2010) combined a sense of colour and composition from European oil paintings with a spirit, lightness of touch and tonal variation of Chinese ink-wash painting.
Born in Jiangsu province in 1919, Wu originally attended a technical school in Hangzhou. Upon meeting Chu Teh-chun who was then a student at the National Academy of Art, Wu had the opportunity to visit the academy and in 1936 he transferred to become a student there, hence embarking on a life-changing journey in art. Having begun his training at the academy in the mid-1930s under the tutelage of Pan Tianshou (1897-1971), Wu then went onto study at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris during the late-1940s (fig. 2), where he became interested in the work of Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). The two experiences impacted Wu deeply and the young artist found himself at a crossroads between eastern and western traditions. Unwilling to give up either, Wu began to “sinicise oil painting and to modernise Chinese painting”.
Upon returning to China in 1950, Wu realized his contemporaries were unsympathetic to his cause. Unwilling to conform to the popularized Socialist Realist style of figure painting, Wu decided to paint landscapes. Travelling to several scenic places across China, Wu made sketches of the sights he saw. The artist wrote that “(t)hrough painting landscapes I have grown to love my motherland even more and wish to be forever intoxicated in her embrace.”
Although there was a brief stint during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), in which the artist was unable to teach, write or paint, by the early-1980s Wu began to appear in a flurry of exhibitions and publications. This continued throughout the rest of his life and most notably, London’s British Museum staged a groundbreaking exhibition for the artist in 1992 (fig. 3). This was the first time the museum broke its rule of displaying only ancient artifacts and showed the work of a living Chinese artist. A work from this exhibition, The Grand Canyon, dated 1989, is featured in the auction (Lot 1262).
Wu Guanzhong has always maintained a special relationship with Hong Kong. He first visited the city in 1950 on his way to return to China from Paris. In the next few decades he would come to Hong Kong again and again for numerous exhibitions and lectures, during which he would tirelessly visit streets of Hong Kong to do sketches. Hong Kong also provided Wu an open door to international museums and commercial galleries. In 1988 the Hong Kong Museum of Art collected its first work by the artist, entitled Tree Roots, and throughout the late 1980s to early 2000s Wu worked with a few galleries in Hong Kong holding many exhibitions to showcase his new works. Two works from this auction, Residents at Riverbank (Lot 1263) and An Old Man’s Envy of a Rushing Stream (Lot 1264) were both acquired by European collectors in the 1980s through Wu’s gallery exhibitions in Hong Kong.
From the Hong Kong through the Eyes of Wu Guanzhong exhibition organised by Land Development Corporation of Hong Kong in 1991 to the artist’s retrospective at the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 2002 (fig. 1), Wu always welcomed any opportunities to exhibit in the city. In commemoration of this friendship and the artist’s centennial birthday, the Hong Kong Museum of Art will open a permanent “Wu Guanzhong Art Gallery” later this year following a generous donation of works made by Wu’s family. Wu’s work Tsim Sha Tsui (Lot 1261), dated 1990, again demonstrates Wu’s fondness of this city, and how its urbanity contrasts with Wu’s tranquil landscape of Jiangnan.
Today, Wu is internationally recognised and many of his works are held in museum and private collections across the world. When describing his artistic journey throughout the turbulence of twentieth-century China, Wu likened it to flying a kite against the wind with an unbroken string. For the artist, a kite’s resilience against the wind allowed it to soar higher and an unbroken string enabled it to remain attached to its original source of inspiration. Remaining true to this metaphor, Wu rendered his paintings with a touch of modernity through his pursuit of a national spirit. This is the historical significance of Wu Guanzhong.

Brought to you by

Sandy Yom

syom@christies.com +852 2978 9933

Lot Essay

“Today when I sketched the streets of Hong Kong, I was really depicting my childhood dreams with my brushes.” － Wu Guanzhong
In 1990, Wu Guanzhong was invited by the Land Development Corporation to record his impressions of Hong Kong before certain districts were demolished and rebuilt. Spending a month sketching Hong Kong’s densely packed and narrow streets (Fig. 1 & 2), the artist produced a number of thoughtful portraits that were later published and presented as an exhibition in 1991.
Tsim Sha Tsui, a culmination of these efforts, demonstrates the artist’s mastery over rendering a beautiful, yet nostalgic portrait of the changing city. Once a major trade port in the early-19th century, Tsim Sha Tsui became a bustling city in the mid-1980s. Wu first visited Tsim Sha Tsui in 1950, when he departed from the old Kowloon railway station to return to Beijing from Paris after his studies. The scene depicted in Tsim Sha Tsui is likely the junction between Granville Road and Carnarvon Road, known to be a busy shopping street with small outlets selling fashion and beauty products. Some of the shop signs, depicted in various neon colours, can be seen from the photographs of the 1980s and 1990s. Tsim Sha Tsui has been constantly changing and Wu captures this sense of change through a vibrant dash of unmuddied colours, elegant lines, and broad brushstrokes. Highlighting another side of the life and beauty of this old town, Wu pours his passion onto paper and gives motion to the ink. The town becomes alive, pulsating with energy, with each stroke and flick of the brush. Exposing his years of artistic training, control and unbridled creativity, Tsim Sha Tsui is also a poignant story about friendship between the artist and Hong Kong.

More from Fine Chinese Modern Paintings

View All