Spring and Autumn

Details

WU GUANZHONG (1919-2010)
Spring and Autumn
Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and colour on paper
47.5 x 48.7 cm. (18 ¾ x 19 1/8 in.)
Inscribed and signed, with one seal of the artist
Dated 1985

Provenance

Hong Kong Auctioneers & Estate Agency Limited, Sale of Modern Chinese Paintings, 14 May 1988, Lot. 133.

Literature

Paintings by Wu Guanzhong, Rong Bao Zhai, Beijing, June 1987, p.43.

Further Details

Among the representative ink paintings by Wu Guanzhong we can almost always find corresponding sketches from his earlier days. His sketches are reductions to the essential minimal manifested in dots and lines that he observed from nature.
“Spring and Autumn” is a recurrent subject for the artist in the 1980s. The first of such examples was his sketch of Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan in 1985 (Fig. 1). In this sketch, he focused on a small bridge and its surrounding, an idyllic portrait adorned with herds grazing in the distance. When he visualized the Jiuzhaigou Lake, Wu abandoned the grand landscape with technicolour and was drawn to the large body of shallow water, manifested in darker and lighter shades of grey. The details under his brush are the thin vegetation stems moving elegantly and the yaks and the leaves abstracted to become coloured dots. The painting is full of energy and movement.
Wu Guanzhong said, “I painted Spring and Autumn in Jiuzhaigou based on one of my sketches. The painting does not indicate Spring or Autumn - because as season changes, we are oblivious of years passing by.” The quote reverberates his nostalgia for the passing of time; and his wish to transform emotions into this beautiful and abstract composition.
This painting was featured in Rong Bao Zhai published Paintings by Wu Guanzhong. In this authoritative catalogue, Wu wrote the preface and asked Lin Fengmian to inscribe the book cover. At the time of publication, the painting only had one seal and had no signature. The signature on the current painting was added later by the artist when it was sold or gifted.

Brought to you by

Carmen Shek Cerne (石嘉雯)

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Lot Essay

The collection formerly belonged to a European collector who enjoyed Chinese art. During the 1980s and the 1990s, the collector was in Hong Kong and frequented galleries and auctions searching for modern Chinese paintings, with a particular interest in Wu Guanzhong and Huang Yongyu. These paintings are in the market for the very first time, having been in the same collection for more than three decades.

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