WU GUANZHONG (1919-2010)
WU GUANZHONG (1919-2010)
WU GUANZHONG (1919-2010)
WU GUANZHONG (1919-2010)
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PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT ASIAN PRIVATE COLLECTION (LOTS 1167-1168)
WU GUANZHONG (1919-2010)

A Village of the Zhuang People in Guangxi

Details
WU GUANZHONG (1919-2010)
A Village of the Zhuang People in Guangxi
Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and colour on paper
90 x 96 cm. (35 3⁄8 x 37 ¾ in.)
With one seal of the artist
Literature
Emotion & Innovation - Wu Guanzhong's wash painting career, Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, May 2004, pp. 22-23.
Cai Mian Chao Tian: Wu Guanzhong’s World, Shanghai Hua Bao Publishing Co., Shanghai, August 2005, p. 184.
The Complete Works of Wu Guanzhong Vol. V, Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, August 2007, p. 74.
Exhibited
Paris, UNESCO, Emotion & Innovation – Wu Guanzhong’s Wash Painting Career, June 2004.
Beijing, China, National Art Museum of China, Emotion & Innovation – Wu Guanzhong’s Wash Painting Career, July 2004.

Brought to you by

Carmen Shek Cerne (石嘉雯)
Carmen Shek Cerne (石嘉雯) Vice President, Head of Department, Chinese Paintings

Lot Essay

Wu Guanzhong’s oeuvre took a major turn in the early seventies when he returned to ink painting in 1973 and resumed his long-stalled travel sketching practices. In 1977, Wu Guanzhong travelled to Guilin and Nanning in Guangxi Province to sketch. In Longsheng County, Guangxi Province, he was impressed by the unique natural scenery, especially the terraced rice paddies that are rarely seen in the north. He was also inspired by the culture of the various ethnic groups, and created a series of new works, of which he later wrote: “Most of my oil paintings and ink paintings of the terraced fields were painted in Longsheng in Guangxi and Wanxian in Sichuan Province.”

The present work is not titled or dated, but according to The Complete Works of Wu Guanzhong, it was painted in 1977 and titled Village of the Zhuang People in Guangxi. The sketch of “Terraced Fields of Guangxi” (Fig.), created in the same year, suggests that this work was probably a large-scale ink and color painting created shortly after Wu returned to Beijing from Guangxi. Slightly different from the sketch, the local dwellings are positioned as the main subject, with the terraced fields outlined in the upper right corner. The work’s large-scale and deep perspective together evoke a sense of sketch-like liveliness. With plantain trees in foreground anchoring the artist’s viewpoint, the traditional houses of the Zhuang people dotted along the mountain streams and terraced fields stretch all the way into the clouds. The cloudy green ink is embellished with crowds of villagers and hung clothes using dots of oil paint, reflecting Wu’s distinctive characteristics as he transitioned from oil to ink paintings. The ingenuous and dynamic composition is rarely seen in Wu’s future works, making it an important and rare work in Wu’s ink painting career.

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