186 Wu Guanzhong (b. 1919)
Sunrise on Mount Hua
1983
hanging scroll, ink and color on paper
70 x 140 cm.
Collection of Lawrence Wu, New York
Wu Guanzhong studied oil painting at the National Academy in Hangzhou, where
he was a classmate of Zao Wouki. He went to France in 1946, but later returned
to China, where he taught for many years at various schools in Beijing.
His final, and perhaps most suitable, position was at the Central Academy
of Arts and Crafts, a design school founded by Pang Xunqin in 1956 that
employed many artists who did not work in the Soviet manner. Wu's oil landscapes
attracted some attention in the 1960s, but he created his most important
work immediately following the Cultural Revolution, when he emerged as a
strong advocate of "abstract beauty" in art, in direct contradiction
to the theories of socialist realism. Although he continued to work in oil,
his guohua of the period, with its unusual use of color, best achieves
his aspirations for formal beauty. He brings to his painting on Chinese
paper his training in line drawing and Western-style color, thus making
quite innovative and personal use of the medium.