Wu Guanzhong sought for an integration between French Romanticism and Chinese Literati Painting Tradition from both his oil and ink paintings. But, Mao Zedong and the Communist Party disliked his pro-European attempt of Sino-Western aesthetic innovations. Due to the trend of Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong forced Wu Guanzhong to abandon what he learnt in Paris and re-adapt to the "Leninist School of Realistic Thought". But, Wu Guanzhong refused to do so. Fortunately, the colonial government of Hong Kong under British administration tried all its best to preserve Wu Guanzhong's pieces and ensure him with creative freedoms. Wu Guanzhong could thus explore a great variety of new styles while playing with his moisturized ink leisures, such as Post-Impressionism, Rococo, Abstract Expressionism, Feminism and Minimalism.

1. Lee Kwun Leung Vincent

2.  Wu Guanzhong (吳冠中)
passed away on 25 June 2010
 Before his death, he donated
many ink and oil paintings to
Hong Kong Museum of Art.
 Mr. Henry Tang (唐英年),
Former Chief Secretary of the
HKSAR Government, paid a
great tribute to Master Wu’s
dedication to the Hong Kong
art scene in Beijing. The
RTHK helped produce a
documentary programme as
a kind of commemoration.

3.  Mr. Henry Tang visited Master Wu’s homeplace in Beijing and thanked his
donations on behalf of the HKSAR Leisure and Cultural Services Department
in January 2010, five months before his death.
 Source:
http://archive.news.gov.hk/isd/ebulletin/en/category/healthandcommuni
ty/100202/html/100202en05002.htm#

4.  During his days at
National Hangzhou
Academy of Art, Pan
Tianshou (潘天壽) and
Lin Fengmian (林風
眠), two prominent
Modern Chinese-ink
masters from the
period of Lingnan Fine
Arts, were his art
instructors.

5.  Wu Guanzhong , together with Zhu Dequn (朱德群), studied at
National Hangzhou Academy of Art. Later on, Master Wu had
a chance to further his art researches at Paris Academy of Fine
Arts.

6.  No matter in Paris or in China, Wu Guanzhong kept
exchanging academic views with Zhu Dequn (朱德群,
Left) and Zhao Wuji (趙無極, Right), for merging the
aesthetic elements of Chinese literati painting with the
Post-Impressionistic, Rococo and Expressionistic oil-
painting styles while rendering with the creation of
Modern Chinese ink and oil painting.

7.  Wu Guanzhong explored his
unique style of oil painting with
both Chinese and French features.
But, as China became governed by
the Communist Party, Mao Zedong
strictly requested the Mainland art
intellectuals to learn “Leninist
School of Realistic Thoughts”
from the Soviet Union.
 Witnessing that Wu Guanzhong’s
oil-painting style was much
influenced by the trend of
Romanticism due to his studying
experiences in Paris, Mao Zedong
labeled Wu as a “pro-Capitalist”
sinner and delivered him to suffer
from “thought remodification”
tortures inside the concentration
camp as similar as Li Keran (李可染)
and Wan Qingli (萬青力) did
during the Cultural Revolution.

8.  During the Cultural
Revolution, Hong
Kong was still the
colony of the UK.
Knowing that Wu
Guanzhong was
greatly suppressed
by Mao Zedong, the
Governor noted the
Urban Council to
systematically
collect and preserve
Wu Guanzhong’s
paintings inside the
Hong Kong
Museum of Art.

9.  No matter before
and after the
Handover, the
curators from the
Hong Kong
Museum of Art
plays an important
role in organizing
many solo
exhibitions for Wu
Guanzhong’s oil
and ink paintings.
This enables the
international world
to know about the
unique art styles of
Wu Guanzhong by
putting aside the
concern on the
threats from the
Beijing regime.

10.  That’s why, Wu Guanzhong fostered a strong sense of belonging to Hong
Kong, a city with creative freedom that sheltered him to pursue his Sino-
French painting style. Wu Guanzhong donated his final series of oil and
ink paintings to the Hong Kong Museum of Art before his death in 2010 as
an expression of deepest thanks to the Hong Kong Government.

11.  Alex Fong’s dad is a
merchant in gallery
business and art
collections. His dad
persists with a close
friendship with Wu
Keyu (吳可雨), who
is Wu Guanzhong’s
son. That’s why,
Alex Fong’s dad
tries his best to help
Wu Keyu promote
and sell Wu
Guanzhong’s
paintings.

12.  During the last
solo exhibition of
Wu Guanzhong’s
art at Hong Kong
Museum of Art
before his death in
2010, Tsang Tak-
sing (曾德成),
Secretary for
Home Affairs
Bureau, presented
a Certificate of
Appreciation to
Wu Keyu, for
thanking his
father’s painting
donations to the
Museum.

13.  Rural and
ecological episodes
 With the alternative
highlights of red,
yellow, green and
light-blue dots
 Ink strokes:
reflecting the
“vibrancy of
structural
brushworks” (骨法
用筆) from the Six
Rules of Xie He (謝
赫六法)

14.  Cursive flows of ink strokes: fabricating a vision
called “vividness of spiritual essence” (氣韻生動)
from the Six Rules of Xie He (謝赫六法)

15.  Good at portraying the stems of lotuses from the
ponds: talking about the idea of integrity and his wish
of persisting with a purified spirituality despite of
growing up from the dirty mud (出淤泥而不染)

16.  Bold use of ink strokes while describing the architectures of
the urban episodes: reflecting his desire for living with a
sense of “childhoodness” despite of being regarded as “naïve”
in expressing his aesthetic vision

17.  Stressing the moisturized ink leisures (墨意) with infiltration effects,
which helped better present a kind of“artistic conception” (意境):
conveying his admiration to the spirit of “literati painting” (文人畫)
since the Yuan Dynasty, which was initiated by Wang Meng (王蒙),
Huang Gongwang (黃宮望), Wu Zhen (吳鎮) and Ni Zan (倪瓚)

18.  Sometimes making references on the courageous
“pigment-splashing” effects of Jackson Pollock from
the US: sought for an integration between Chinese-ink
leisure and American Abstract Expressionism

19.  Sometimes making references on the palette
effects of Paul Czanne from the trend of Post-
Impressionism: The cottages were fabricated by
rectangular ink regiments

20.  Even for
portraying a
realistic object, the
corresponding
background was
decorated with a
slight portion of
cursive ink strokes
and an alternative
highlight of red,
yellow, green,
light-blue and
purple dots.

21.  Some of the pieces reflected his trust on random intuitions during his
creative explorations, as he distributed diversified sketchy objects on a
piece of xuanzhi paper in an illogical manner, which made the whole
vision appear as similar as a fantasy or a daydreaming illusion.

22.  Master Wu
liked to travel
around,
including
Hong Kong, to
record the
episodes of
some inspiring
sight-seeings
by using his
transformed
“line-and-dot”
ink styles in a
sketchy
manner.

23.  Sometimes, he
is also a fan of
“Minimalism”,
which is a
trend initiated
by Donald
Judd.

24.  For nude-lady expression,
Wu Guanzhong was inspired
by the directness of his
master, Lin Fengmian (林風
眠), in which there’s a
harmonious integration
among “gongbi” (工筆)
refinements, Feminism,
Minimalism, German
Expressionism (particularly
for the exaggerative
distortion of human
anatomy), and the
moisturized ink leisures from
the “Chinese Literati Painting”
tradition.

25.  Academic reference: “Hong Kong Visual Arts
Yearbook 2010”, published by CUHK Department of
Fine Arts