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Lot 1261 PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION (LOTS 1261-1262)
WU GUANZHONG (1919-2010)
Tsim Sha Tsui
Closed26 November 2019
Price Realised
HKD 5,525,000
More Information
Specialist note
“Today when I sketched the streets of Hong Kong, I was really depicting my childhood dreams with my brushes.” － Wu Guanzhong
In 1990, Wu Guanzhong was invited by the Land Development Corporation to record his impressions of Hong Kong before certain districts were demolished and rebuilt. Spending a month sketching Hong Kong’s densely packed and narrow streets (Fig. 1 & 2), the artist produced a number of thoughtful portraits that were later published and presented as an exhibition in 1991.
Tsim Sha Tsui, a culmination of these efforts, demonstrates the artist’s mastery over rendering a beautiful, yet nostalgic portrait of the changing city. Once a major trade port in the early-19th century, Tsim Sha Tsui became a bustling city in the mid-1980s. Wu first visited Tsim Sha Tsui in 1950, when he departed from the old Kowloon railway station to return to Beijing from Paris after his studies. The scene depicted in Tsim Sha Tsui is likely the junction between Granville Road and Carnarvon Road, known to be a busy shopping street with small outlets selling fashion and beauty products. Some of the shop signs, depicted in various neon colours, can be seen from the photographs of the 1980s and 1990s. Tsim Sha Tsui has been constantly changing and Wu captures this sense of change through a vibrant dash of unmuddied colours, elegant lines, and broad brushstrokes. Highlighting another side of the life and beauty of this old town, Wu pours his passion onto paper and gives motion to the ink. The town becomes alive, pulsating with energy, with each stroke and flick of the brush. Exposing his years of artistic training, control and unbridled creativity, Tsim Sha Tsui is also a poignant story about friendship between the artist and Hong Kong.
In 1990, Wu Guanzhong was invited by the Land Development Corporation to record his impressions of Hong Kong before certain districts were demolished and rebuilt. Spending a month sketching Hong Kong’s densely packed and narrow streets (Fig. 1 & 2), the artist produced a number of thoughtful portraits that were later published and presented as an exhibition in 1991.
Tsim Sha Tsui, a culmination of these efforts, demonstrates the artist’s mastery over rendering a beautiful, yet nostalgic portrait of the changing city. Once a major trade port in the early-19th century, Tsim Sha Tsui became a bustling city in the mid-1980s. Wu first visited Tsim Sha Tsui in 1950, when he departed from the old Kowloon railway station to return to Beijing from Paris after his studies. The scene depicted in Tsim Sha Tsui is likely the junction between Granville Road and Carnarvon Road, known to be a busy shopping street with small outlets selling fashion and beauty products. Some of the shop signs, depicted in various neon colours, can be seen from the photographs of the 1980s and 1990s. Tsim Sha Tsui has been constantly changing and Wu captures this sense of change through a vibrant dash of unmuddied colours, elegant lines, and broad brushstrokes. Highlighting another side of the life and beauty of this old town, Wu pours his passion onto paper and gives motion to the ink. The town becomes alive, pulsating with energy, with each stroke and flick of the brush. Exposing his years of artistic training, control and unbridled creativity, Tsim Sha Tsui is also a poignant story about friendship between the artist and Hong Kong.