PRESS RELEASE

2007 Evening Sale: Wu Guanzhong, THE RED FLOWER COURTYARD

2007-05-18 13:15:40

A famous Chinese art critic has likened Wu Guanzhong to Jackson Pollock. It is not untrue considering the similarity between them: freedom, enthusiasm, originality. Wu Guanzhong, however, is quite different from Pollock. It is not because there are always discernible objects in his paintings, but because most of his works are rather gentle and peaceful in comparison with those of Pollock¡¯s. THE RED FLOWER COURTYARD is, however, an open and intense painting which seems unusual amongst Wu Guanzhong¡¯s works. The art language used here is somewhat similar to Pollock while the composition of the trees, the lake, the path, and the houses at the bottom of the painting is so delicate that would recall traditional Chinese blue-and-green landscape paintings. Wu Guanzhong has melted Western art languages with traditional Chinese artistic skills carefully to create his own style. The yard is enjoyable in that there are so many beautiful flowers around it. But it also has a sense of loneliness because it is located at the summit of the mountain and, as the old Chinese saying goes: ¡°The one who want to stand at the summit has to bear the unbearable loneliness.¡± This is precisely the situation both of the yard of red flowers and of Wu Guanzhong.