WU GUANZHONG (1919-2010)

Wu Guanzhong’s oeuvre took a major turn in the early seventies when he returned to ink painting in 1973 and resumed his long-stalled travel sketching practices. In 1977, Wu Guanzhong travelled to Guilin and Nanning in Guangxi Province to sketch. In Longsheng County, Guangxi Province, he was impressed by the unique natural scenery, especially the terraced rice paddies that are rarely seen in the north. He was also inspired by the culture of the various ethnic groups, and created a series of new works, of which he later wrote: “Most of my oil paintings and ink paintings of the terraced fields were painted in Longsheng in Guangxi and Wanxian in Sichuan Province.”

The present work is not titled or dated, but according to The Complete Works of Wu Guanzhong, it was painted in 1977 and titled Village of the Zhuang People in Guangxi. The sketch of “Terraced Fields of Guangxi” (Fig.), created in the same year, suggests that this work was probably a large-scale ink and color painting created shortly after Wu returned to Beijing from Guangxi. Slightly different from the sketch, the local dwellings are positioned as the main subject, with the terraced fields outlined in the upper right corner. The work’s large-scale and deep perspective together evoke a sense of sketch-like liveliness. With plantain trees in foreground anchoring the artist’s viewpoint, the traditional houses of the Zhuang people dotted along the mountain streams and terraced fields stretch all the way into the clouds. The cloudy green ink is embellished with crowds of villagers and hung clothes using dots of oil paint, reflecting Wu’s distinctive characteristics as he transitioned from oil to ink paintings. The ingenuous and dynamic composition is rarely seen in Wu’s future works, making it an important and rare work in Wu’s ink painting career.