Oil on board

36 × 28 cm. 14 1/8 × 11 in.

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

LITERATURE
1992, Han Mo 6, Han Mo Xuan Co., Ltd, Hong Kong, p. 88
2007, The Complete Works of Wu Guanzhong, vol. 2, Hunan Art Publishing House, Changsha, p. 176
PROVENANCE
25 Sep 1989, Christie's Hong Kong Autumn Auction, Lot 117
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

World in the Eyes, Love in the Flowers
The Milestone Oil Painting of Wu Guanzhong, and His “Thirty Years of Glory”

In March 1992, the British Museum broke the convention of only exhibiting ancient cultural relics and held a solo exhibition for Wu Guanzhong, granting him the honor to be the first Chinese artist to exhibit in the museum. At the opening ceremony of the exhibition, his work Cypress was exhibited at the place of the original Admonitions Scroll made by Gu Kaizhi. The British Crown Prince Charles personally cut the ribbon for the exhibition. Wu's old friends, Chu Teh-Chun and his wife, made a special trip from Paris for this. The famous art historian Michael Sullivan was the curator. 73-year-old Wu Guanzhong walked to the center of the world art stage and shined!

The life of Wu Guanzhong is a life of belief in “beauty.” He is a dervish in refining and creating beauty. With the sensations of a poet, he observes and imagines everything to seek “beauty in form.” At this autumn auction, we present A New House (Lot 35) and Clove Flowers (Lot 36), two masterpieces of Wu Guanzhong's oil paintings with great honor. These two paintings lay the foundation for his “Glorious Thirty Years”, from the 1970s to the 1990s. The art museum-level treasures carry his most representative and matured skills and characters, signifying his way of oil painting creation. The story starts from the first appearance of Wu as a modern Chinese oil painter, through his “water and land” approach, ends with his profoundly influential and greatly appraised abstract beauty in the 1990s. Both works are included in the artist's authoritative catalogue raisonné and many important personal albums. Clove Flowers is also included in Wu Guanzhong's Self-Selected Works, becoming one of the 65 works appointed by the artist to show his achievements in oil painting with extraordinary importance.

Live in a Shabby Room, Refine and Polish My Virtue
A New House, the First Oil Painting Shown at Auction in the 1980s

“When I reminisce about Li Village, I can remember the old villagers build new houses everywhere. The houses are bright with melon vines at the front door. The peaceful life that they enjoy after working in the fields makes a working intellectual like me envy.”
——Wu Guanzhong, A New House

In the turbulent 1970s, Wu's A New House is not a literal new living house yet indicating his working life in Li Village during the Cultural Revolution. The name seems sparse and ordinary, but in fact, it has hidden deep meaning and is saturated with the artist's understanding of life, “Live in a shabby room; refine and polish my virtue.”

New House is extremely special in Wu's art creation. In terms of style, it condenses the artist's classic art characteristics in his landscape works in the 1970s, as an important node in the formation of his style. In terms of his life, it puts an end to Wu's bumpy life and becomes the starting point for a new life full of hope. At the same time, it is also an important starting point for the market of Wu's artworks and subsequently initiated the magnificent development process of the Chinese contemporary art market for more than 30 years. In 1989, A New House was unveiled in the first auction of Wu's oil painting, attracting great attention from all walks of society. In the fierce competition, it was sold at a price that was more than twice the estimated price, which successfully established Wu's enduring market charm. This work was carefully preserved by important Asian collectors till this autumn auction. Among all collected paintings by Wu, it has been held for the longest time, proving the profound meaning of the times it carries.

Ordinary Life, Extraordinary View

A New House completed in 1972, Wu continues his compositional characteristics from the 1960s, deliberately magnifying the flowers in the foreground, occupying two-thirds of the canvas. He extends the white walls and houses from this, demonstrating the rich visual hierarchy in the progress of the project. The succinct architectural scene behind the flower bushes is the style borrowed from the traditional ink painting, the technique of “left blank”. The flower bushes in the foreground are presented in the “corner landscape” style instead of the “panoramic” expression. The visual interest of “focus on a corner” and “distance means distinct nearness” gradually develop into a creative composition of “from the complex to the simple” and “from the part to the whole”. This influenced the Japanese “Ukiyo-e” and the distinctive feature of “distinctness” in the field of composition in the 19th century, turning the creations with the “seeing the subtle and knowing the work” special feature. Wu is well versed in genius and draws inspiration from tradition. A New House is a modern interpretation that ingeniously blends into the national and personal art characteristics, gradually giving birth to the typical characteristics of “imagery oil painting”, laying an important cornerstone for his future creation, and having a profound influence on Chinese modern art and aesthetic taste. In the inheritance and creation of the composition, Wu infills an implicit and introverted oriental charm into this work. The seemingly simple houses and flowers contain the artistic discourse that is compatible with both the East and the West, which greatly fits Wu's pursuit of art in this period, “satisfied by the masses; appraised by the experts.” This broadens the ordinary life with an extraordinary view, with a touch of the heart rather than the superficial flash.

Vivid Brushstrokes, Heartbeat Stigma

The birth of A New House marks the end of Wu's sufferings of the Cultural Revolution and his renewed pursuit of beauty. He infuses every stroke with the joy of rebirth, recording the past with bright colors and rich texture. The work witnessing the starting point of his load-bearing journey is like a door connecting the past and the future. The bright yellow door the residential house in the painting is a symbol of a bright and cheerful future. Each stroke of the branches and leaves and flowers that stretch towards the center of the painting is so powerful, integrates the artist's sincere feelings for nature, the “heartbeat stigma” for life. The vivid colors of the flowers coexist with the energy of life, reflecting the simplicity and stability of the white wall at the rear. It is the same as Wu's iconic “white wall and black tile” element in “Jiangnan scenery” in the coming paintings, marking a joyful rebirth of hope!

Refine the Beauty of the World, Condense the Precious Time of the Life
Clove Flowers Completed in the 1990s, A Museum-Quality Treasure

Wu Guanzhong has torn up more than 200 unsatisfactory works before the final classic Clove Flowers was completed in 1991. The following year, the work made its debut in a solo exhibition. Once exhibited, it was purchased by an important private Asion collector. The 30 years collection seems to be a continuation of the story of the beloved couple, Wu and his wife, adding a long-lasting and harmonious beauty to the paintings.

Among all the creations of Wu has only ten vase flower paintings, only one clove flower. Stepping into his seventh decade, Wu values the innocence and loyalty symbolized by the clove flowers, expressing the intimate love hidden in his heart.

Cross the Mountains and Sea, Unite the Object and Self

Since 1978, Wu's focus has shifted from oil painting to ink painting, and finally makes the breakthrough in the “modernity of Chinese painting” in his oil painting creation with the inspiration from the freehand expression of ink painting. In 1991, Wu was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, embracing his peak of creation in both oil painting and color ink painting, during which time, he created the Clove Flowers. However, in life, his wife's serious illness made him feel the impermanence of life for the first time, which is the reason for the richer personal emotions and humanistic feelings in his creation. In his writing Selected Works, he says, “I usually don't draw flowers. Seeing my wife's old manuscript cloves, I imitate it.” It is hard to conceal the sincere feelings of mutual cherish-just like the lives of each other in full bloom together.

To My Beloved, The Best and the Care

Clove Flowers is an application of Wu's representative geometrical beauty to the flower theme. The upright composition is a reminder of the calligraphy form. The classic “Round Heaven and Squared Earth” structure highlights the well-arranged components in the painting with a stable layout, also his best wishes for the people in love. Pink and white clove flowers are blooming in the painting with buds and thick ink-color leaves set off among them. The brown flower branches grow from the center and expand outward, highlighting the vigorous growth of the scented and flourishing bouquet. At the bottom of the painting, the simple vase is drawn with a large white brushstroke, like a cascade or a birch trunk. The thick dark brown brushstrokes below are like the thick black soil in the north, “rooting” the bottled flowers in the earth. A few strokes reveal a vast universe in the painting with four seasons, showing the unparalleled skills of “refining the beauty of the heavens and the earth.”

Magnificence and Elegant, Scenery on Paper

Compared with the creations from the 50s to the early 70s, Clove Flowers completed in the 90s was not shackled by objective object modeling and the pursuit of simplicity and purity of details. The colorful bouquets contained the transformation from natural beauty to abstract beauty. Both the bouquet and the background behind vividly reflect a form of simplification: the purified yellow, red, green, and other small color dots closely blended with the white and pink large color blocks, showing a kind of changing repetition. Thus, in the conversion of points, lines, and surfaces, the rhythm of life itself is displayed with color and brush. Although the subject matter is special, Clove Flowers echoes the representative imagery landscape of the artist at the same time. It is ingeniously connected with the flower in the traditional ink painting, using the gentle brushwork to interpret the tough core of “imageic abstraction”, which makes the artistic personality exceptional. Transformed into all things, it gave birth to an inner landscape that “tolerates all things and unites mind and matter.”

Price estimate:
HKD: 5,600,000 - 9,600,000
USD: 719,400 - 1,233,300

Auction Result:
HKD: 8,574,000