Oil on board

61.4 × 46 cm. 24 1/8 × 18 1/8 in.

Signed in Chinese and dated on bottom left; titled and signed in Chinese and dated on the reverse

LITERATURE
1996, Art of Wu Guanzhong 60's-90's, China Three Gorges Press, Beijing, p. 122, Plate no. 101
2007, The Complete Works of Wu Guanzhong, vol. 4, Hunan Art Publishing House, Changsha, p. 167
PROVENANCE
6 Oct 2013, Poly Hong Kong Autumn Auction, Lot 14
Important Private Collection, Asia

Read the ups and downs of History, Croon the Grace and Charm of the Universe
Wu Guanzhong's Poetic Jiangnan Scenery, Museum-quality Masterpieces to be Presented

Charles Pierre Baudelaire, the pioneer poet of French Symbolism, shocked the western literary world with his Les Fleurs du mal in the 19th century. He made a classic definition of modernity: «Modernity is transition -- transience, contingent, half of art, the other half of eternity and invariance.”

Modernity in aesthetics is closely related to the art trend of western modernism. Modernity in China echos this western perspective regarding their commonality in the rebellious nature of aesthetics, the form of expression and the intension of grasping “the present”. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, Ling Fengmian has keenly pointed out that if artists want to express the emotion corresponding to the times, they ought to start with “form”. His words became the most visible banner on the way of the exploration of modernism by Chinese art in the last century.

The Pinnacle of Wu's Combination of Oil and Ink: Pondside Households (Hometown)

Entering the 90s, Wu Guanzhong started his experiment on the combination of oil and ink and achieved the peak of his creation. Pondside Households (Hometown) was born in 1996, when his international reputation and creative achievements reached the peak. The painting has a detailed provenance. It is recorded in the Complete Collection of Wu Guanzhong and is one of the 68 oil paintings included in the Album of Wu Guanzhong 60s-90s. Meanwhile, after Wu finished this creation, he endorsed the title Hometown in his painting, from which the importance and representation of this work are self-evident.

The households along the pondside in the picture are organized in minimalist geometric shapes, and by using Cézanne's theory of geometric shape analysis, Wu created spatial depth via interlaced blocks and hierarchical relationships. Pondside Households (Hometown) represents Wu's successful transformation of the block structure of western paintings into the description of the eastern sentiments for the waterside villages in the south of the Yangtze River, and also a transformation of the analysis and deconstruction of the objects in Western modernism into a blend of the artist's subjective emotions and nature. Wu used direct visual impressions to boldly abandon the explanation of details, and turned the focus of vision to specific colors, color blocks, and the texture of brushstrokes. Under the objective reproduction of the natural landscape, he fluently used large brushstrokes to reflect the picture's rhythm, artistic conception, and spirituality, briefly demonstrating the geometrical abstract beauty and color contained in the scenery itself and making the picture fresh and concise without losing its original charm. By adapting the emphasis on the artist's subjective emotions in traditional landscape paintings, he injected the picture with the freehand context of the oriental landscape. The freehand natural scenery is the cohesion of the artist's national emotions. The artist pursues the artistic conception of homesickness in his paintings by the combination of oil and ink.

Take Shi Tao to the West, Bring Cézanne to the East
Mutual Nourishing of the East and West, Wu's Study and Delicate Combination of the Styles

In 1995, Wu spent a great amount of time studying Shi Tao's On Painting and was greatly inspired by it. Shi summarizes the painting composition methods in his book. He opposes the traditional composition, and believes that he must be brave enough to create his painting language, which has been a profound influence on Wu and his thinking on composition after the mid-1990s. Pondside Households (Hometown) is a response of Wu to Shi. In the painting, the artist cleverly uses the open circular structure of the river embankment. He separates the painting into two parts along the centerline, like a Tai Chi yin and yang pattern Area, corresponding to the real and underwater reflections on the shore. The combination of the ring structure and the flowing water gives people a cyclical and endless psychological hint. Moreover, it echoes with the obliquely curved branches in the foreground of the sky above, forming a stable and balanced visual experience. In the overall corresponding composition, the jumping rhythm formed by the contrasting colors of black-white and green leaves-loess is particularly obvious. The dynamic feeling created by the composition will make people feel nervous and uneasy. Compared to that, the rhythm of the color can maintain the composition stable and peaceful. At the same time, it injects beautiful imagery like bright colors into the painting, echoing the characteristics of national oil painting developed by Wu. He transforms the characteristics of ink painting into the oil painting technique, giving the painting a peaceful but not old-fashioned contemporary beauty.

The Dream of Returning to Home is Like Spring Water, Circling Wu's Hometown

At the end of the 1980s, Wu came to Paris again, and finally got together with his best friend Chu Teh-Chun. Chu is the guide on Wu's art career, and he used to study together at the Hangzhou Art College. Wu called that period “the happiest time in life.” It is the hometown and starting point of his art, with his purest touch and ideal of beauty. Accompanied by the illustrious reputation, Wu has been invited to paint and hold exhibitions all over the world since the early 1990s, which greatly broadened his cultural horizons. Therefore, he grafted the romantic poetry of Paris to the homeland of Jiangnan in his memory. The white walls and black tiles of the river are as fascinating as the stream of light along the Seine. With the growth of ages, Wu, while reminiscing about the homeland of art and missing his childhood and family affection, reveals his concern for life and paints his works to return to the innocent aesthetic character. The white wall on the shore has become an important window for “breathing” in the space. In contrast with the green shades of the embankment presented with thick brushstrokes, it is especially pure and clear, like a simple hymn to life. The painting refreshingly presents the natural environment and his philosophy and understanding of the world in his late years, demonstrating the artist's insight into the essence of life in the creation at this stage.

Price estimate:
HKD: 12,000,000 – 20,000,000
USD: 1,547,400 – 2,579,000

Auction Result:
HKD: 13,950,000