WU GUANZHONG (1919-2010)

Located in the south-eastern part of Beijing, Longtan Lake was originally the location of kiln pits that were the remnants of the construction of the outer city during the Ming dynasty. During the mid-1980s, the site was gradually converted into a large scenic park with a lake. Wu Guanzhong moved to a neighbourhood near Longtan Lake in the early 1990s and frequently visited the park with his family. To him, the park “offers more intriguing varieties than Beihai Park, given its design qualities of the ostentatious and the hidden, the sinuous and the angular. The structure of the rock formations seems to have been given special attention.” As such, he spent a lot of time sketching and painting in the park, capturing the beauty of Longtan Lake on paper.

Created in 1991, Sping in Longtan Lake is based on a draft from 1990 (Fig.), evidence that Wu Guanzhong ruminated on this composition before bringing it to fruition with ink and colour. He uses simple lines to depict the overlapping trees and their branches. Colourful dots are scattered throughout to denote the budding leaves and flowers. A creek meanders from the background to the foreground; several swallows glide across the sky. Ink washes of different gradations are employed to render the rock formation whose design was “given special attention,” creating depth into the pictorial space. All the richness of spring scenery on Longtan Lake is presented in this delightful fine work from the 1990s.