PROVENANCE:
Collection of Liu Chen-tan, Taiwan
Dimensions Art Center, Taipei
Acquired from the above by the present owner (1990)

This painting is to be sold with a certificate of authenticity
issued by Dimensions Art Center, Taipei.

THE SPIRIT OF REPRESENTATION AND ABSTRACTION.

The "Lion Grove Garden" constitutes an eloquent work infused with modern sensibility through a traditional medium. The present lot encompasses lines of varying tones and length that defines space and form. Since the 1980s, the sinuous lines in Wu’s work frequency become the primary focus rather than secondary to the subject matter. The present lot encompasses a complex juxtaposition and a profusion of meandering lines that come alive, pulsates with energy as it outlines the silhouette of the Lion Grove, the largest rockery in Suzhou. Historically, eminent Classical painters such as Xu Ben and Ni Zan had depicted the thematic subject of the rockery since the fourteenth century, where traditional aesthetics focus on the appreciation of the labyrinth of caverns, chasms, and tunnels. In essence, the application and interplay of black and whites convey the notion of void and space that extenuates any presence of colors to create a magnificent pictorial effect of harmonies fluidity and quintessential spirit. Indeed, the brushstrokes in the "Lion Grove Garden" are probably more akin in spirit to those of the Qing painter, Ba Da, who had reached most profoundly to the realm of abstract beauty according to Wu. Similar to Ba Da, the lines in Wu’s painting no longer just describe the apparent and the physical attributes, these lines simultaneously reveal the state of mind of the artist. The sentiments derived from earlier reins of classical landscape painting, illustrates its influence in the pictorial organization.

In essence, Wu regards the rockery as a manifestation of a stream of consciousness, by analyzing the formal characteristics of his subject, he successfully extract the abstract qualities in these forms. He confronted this magnificent scenery of the rockery from nature by deriving abstract qualities that attributes to the essences of the Lion Grove, carefully constructing the composition of the natural scenery to its essential elements. The resulting composition thus lies precisely in the sinuous lines and cacophony of these spattered and splashes of dots in ink and colors of green, yellow, purple and red that reinforce the fluid impression as it dances and sparkles across the composition. Furthermore, the seemingly casual and spontaneous handling of the brush is the structural interplay of these sharp and sinuous sweeping lines are charged with abstract energy as they rise and fall, appearing densely and sparsely at times while extenuating the structure of the Lion Grove. As the lines multiply to delineate the topography of the hard rock surface the concavity of rocks piled up layer upon layer that are concave and the convex, pierced and chiseled intertwine to create space and structure, it stimulates one’s imagination to venture beyond the realms of identifiable representation into creating an abstract rhythm that the rockery left to the viewers’ imagination. This heightens the beauty of the abstract quality of the compositional arrangement, its ties to objective reality with the representational images of the covered-corridor and pavilions nestled within the shade of the pines and cypresses, nostalgically overlooking the soft contours of the pale grey tones of the water where the lively fishes in the foreground resides. The present lot exhibits treasurable epochal spirits as the poetic depiction of the Lion Grove in rhythmic vitality truly constitute a tribute of Wu’s exalting love for his homeland and its people.

“HIS OWN WORK SHOWS THAT LIBERATION FROM A STIFLING TRADITIONALISM HAD BEEN ACHIEVE, IT WAS POSSIBLE, ENRICHED BY WESTERN EXPERIENCE, TO RETURN TO THE NATURAL MODE OF CHINESE PICTORIAL EXPRESSION – THE CALLIGRAPHIC GESTURE OF THE CRUSH AND SO ACHIEVE AN ART THAT IS BOTH CHINESE AND CONTEMPORARY.”
– MICHAEL SULLIVAN

LION GROVE GARDEN
WU GUANZHONG

THE KITE WITH THE UNBROKEN STRING

In retrospect, Wu was enrolled in the Hangzhou Art Academy and devoted himself to oil painting between 1936 and 1942. He studied under other artists such as Lin Fengmian and Pan Tianshou among some of the most innovative traditional masters of the twentieth century. When Wu was under the guidance of Pan Tianshou, he learn the essentials and fundamental groundwork by imitating the works of the the Orthodox tradition and masters Daoji, Kuncan, Hongren, Ba Da, Zheng Xie of the Qing dynasty. In 1947, Wu headed to Paris and studied at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts for the next three years. During his stay in Paris, he emerged himself in Western art. He admired the works of Modigliani, Van Gogh, Utrillo and was greatly inspired by the Impressionists and the liberation of personality of the Fauves tradition and thus adopted to the creative freedom of the Modernist movements. Wu felt that the modern European movements may enrich the traditions and literary associations of the classical Chinese tradition, this sentiment perhaps have partially driven his subsequent return to his homeland in 1950. Wu embraced his homeland with the innermost abundant feelings and decided to actively embarked on a journey that allow his creative vitality to triumph over any political dogma or the vicissitudes of life and strive to incorporate formalist principles from the Western modernist movements into the aesthetics of Traditional Chinese art.

In this regard, Wu remained a strenuous advocate of his dictum of a kite with an unbroken string, which predicates upon "a work of art that is rooted in the culture that nurtures it. It is a parable Wu often uses to describe what he strives for in his abstract painting and figurative work. To him, a painting that is regarded as abstract may still be appreciated by others if it is related to life and experiences of that artist. In other words, if it is linked to the source with an unbroken string. the string, though invisible, validates a work of art and permeates it with sincerity. By deciding to return to China after three years sojourn in France, Wu rejoined the culture that has been his roots. He too, was like a kite that had found its original string." The result is epitomizes by the present lot as Wu reveal his love for nature and the native soil by creating a rich display of lines, dots and washes in ink and color hitherto unseen in traditional painting. Wu has been recognized as an artist of unique sensibility and vision through processes of refining, summarizing, modifying, imagining and recreating, thereby transplanting the beauty of Western painting onto the aesthetic consciousness of the Chinese tradition. Indeed, Wu had produced some of the most satisfying and enduring of modern Chinese art and the present lot is a testament that it is a combination of individual idiosyncrasies and artistic idiosyncrasies that foster the creation of a masterpiece.