On classification of Wu Guanzhong’s art

　　Wu Guanzhong’s art, from my personal perspective, is not easy to classify in terms of painting genres. The objects he chooses are identical according to his understanding of and actual involvement in art despite the various mediums he uses to express them. The objectives he has, despite freely switching to different media, “by land and by water alternately” to quote his words, are the same. There is no specific painting genre unique to his paintings that cannot be rendered in other painting genres. He is equally at home in the employment of and switching between watercolor, oil color and ink color, and he gives full play to the properties of these different media, displaying the artistic traits of different materials when expressing the same object. It is therefore hard, if not impossible, for us to discuss in isolation Wu Guanzhong’s artistic accomplishments in a specific painting genre because his artistic accomplishments are comprehensive, interactive and integrative between painting media. This relationship was deeply rooted in his heart since his early involvement in painting. It is safe to say that the state-funded Hangzhou Academy of Arts steered by Lin Fengmian had a decisive impact on the materialization of Wu Guanzhong’s artistic philosophy.

　　Lin Fengmian’s artistic thought that concerns the “integration of Chinese art with western art” can find direct expression in the academy’s syllabus for art education at that time: “Our department of fine arts is different from that of other academies in that it incorporates Chinese and western painting in the same department. Chinese paintings are generally regarded as categorically distinct from western paintings in our country. This proposition is also accepted by art schools everywhere that awkwardly divide the fine arts into departments of Chinese painting and western painting, resulting in lack of mutual understanding between the faculties and students of the two departments and results in the depreciation of each other. It is really a pity that the contribution of western painting is neglected by Chinese painting researchers who want to adapt the ossified Chinese paintings to the pulse of contemporary society. Likewise, oil painting researchers who want oil painting to slough off western stereotypes and become a new art representing the national spirit, should also attach importance to the accomplishments of Chinese painting achieved over thousands of years.” These words can still be viewed as artistic guidelines in the present that integrate Chinese and western cultures. It is not hard to see that Wu Guanzhong’s artistic propositions and the road he has followed have given full expression to the implementation of this teaching philosophy that integrates Chinese art with western art.

　　As president of the academy, Lin Fengmian exerted a great influence on its educational direction, which also found expression in his guidelines for running the academy, namely, openness to western modern art, strictness in the basic training of his students and fusion of Chinese and western painting…These were the crystallization of Lin Fengmian’s artistic philosophy in his early years (Series of Reviews on Paintings, Zhongzheng Publishing House, 1935). This teaching philosophy was instilled in Wu Guanzhong in his youth when he studied western and Chinese painting together, and it is a philosophy that he has followed throughout his life that he first learnt in his artistic apprenticeship. Chinese painting and western painting were later categorized into different departments, which was a dilemma for him, but he eventually found a way to work with both Chinese and western painting. Thirty years later, however, he returned to water-ink typical of Chinese painting and, furthermore, water-ink increasingly became his primary approach to painting.

　　Therefore, in my opinion, classification of Wu Guanzhong’s art based on painting genre cannot wholly present his artistic career.

　　On Wu Guanzhong’s art in different periods from the perspective of media art

　　Wu Guanzhong’s artistic career can be divided into different stages according to the evolution of his use of artistic medium. Wu Guanzhong’s art consists primarily of watercolor (including gouache), oil color and ink color whose successive appearance and interaction correspond with the evolution of the process and stages of his artistic career. Therefore, from the perspective of his choice of artistic medium, Wu Guanzhong’s fifty-year artistic career witnessed the progressive evolution from watercolor, oil color to ink color and to the gradual predominance of the latter medium.

　　Talking of the relationship between the three media, Wu Guanzhong once said: “I was primarily dedicated to oil painting in my early years (when he was a student) and at the same time also studied traditional Chinese painting. Watercolor bridges the two major painting genres in the west and the east…The color in oil painting and the ink in water-ink painting meet in watercolor, getting along and caring for each other day and night…I’m artistically indebted to oil painting that exhibits Chinese taste, water-ink painting depicting western landscape and watercolor painting alike. They interact with and supplement one another beyond my consciousness.” (Watercolor Painting and I)

　　In the 1950s, Wu Guanzhong was dedicated primarily to the creation of watercolor paintings and the occasional composition of oil paintings. In the early 1960s, he was committed to watercolor and oil painting alike and switched from watercolor to oil painting with oil color as the primary artistic medium. He put down his brush for eight years during the Cultural Revolution. In the 1970s, the media he adopted for painting was predominately oil color and he also began to dabble with water-ink painting. After the 1980s, water-ink increasingly became his primary medium for painting in addition to oil painting. Oil color and ink color alternate to become his primary artistic medium. From an overall perspective, however, water-ink increasingly became his primary medium for painting in the 1980s. Ink color rose to be his predominant artistic medium in the 1990s, finding its way into some large-scale painting works.

　　As an evolutionary progression Wu Guanzhong’s artistic accomplishments in the 1950s primarily lie in watercolor paintings and in the 1960s and 1970s in oil painting. His artistic life in the 1980s was in full blossom, reaping a bumper harvest in oil color painting and ink color painting alike despite the palpable advantage of water-ink over other painting media in terms of his artistic trend. Water-ink rose to claim primary prominence as his artistic achievement in the 1990s, followed by oil painting, which nonetheless was used to present some classical painting works to the world.

　　Wu Guanzhong’s artistic career can also be divided into three stages in terms of the explorative process of a scenic artist, namely, development stage in the 1950s, mature stage in the 1960s and 1970s and stylization period in the 1980s and 1990s. Despite that Wu Guanzhong’s watercolor paintings in the 1950s, in terms of watercolor itself, were masterly and complete, the watercolor employed as the primary medium during that period, for an artist noted for his scenic paintings, can only be defined as an explorative and formative stage for his scenic paintings. This is because scenic painting was not what he intended to concentrate on immediately after he returned from France. Rather, scenic painting was the only choice available to him due to the political milieu of that time. His scenic paintings in this stage, therefore, were still in the process of exploration without a complete artistic philosophy in their creation. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had accumulated a fairly rich experience in the creation of scenic paintings and outlined an original and complete set of theories for the creation of scenic paintings. So, the 1960s-1970s is the mature period for his creation of scenic paintings in oil color. His overseas visits and the resulting expanded creative environment since the 1980s afforded him a wider visual field and freer mentality, facilitating his artistic development towards individualization and stylization. His works during this period were no longer limited to Chinese local scenes and were created primarily indoors through quick sketch rather than direct painting from life, and hence more expressionist elements were fused into his realistic paintings. It is also safe to say that his oil paintings during this period were accomplished under the influence of uninhibited water-ink paintings, which facilitate his freer employment of oil colors.

　　1950s: Wu Guanzhong’s background as a scenic painter

　　When Wu Guanzhong returned to his homeland from Paris in 1950, he planned to bring to China what he had acquired from his study of western art to benefit the younger generation, following the example of the scripture-translator Tang Seng (a monk in the Tang Dynasty) living in the White Horse Temple. He dreamt of progressively developing his own art on the soil of his own country and nationality. The patriotic Wu Guanzhong, however, did not expect to be criticized as an artistic heathen and have his artistic propositions refuted as bourgeois formalism. Even more unexpectedly, he was compelled to switch his original orientation in art and become a scenic painter because the figure paintings he created in the early years after returning to his homeland were (groundlessly) considered inappropriate to depict workers, farmers and soldiers. The criticism was made that he made them appear ugly. About this he responded: “The works deemed as eulogizing workers, farmers and soldiers, in my opinion, are very ugly. The distinction between beauty and ugliness was blurred and even inverted at that time…I really can’t stand others’ approaches to the expression of ‘beauty’ in the depiction of workers, farmers and soldiers. I was compelled to switch to scenic paintings.”

　　Therefore, it is safe to state that the switch to scenic paintings was the first wise and levelheaded choice Wu Guanzhong made in his rough artistic journey after returning to his homeland. This is because scenic paintings bore no definite political tendency; hence he was immune from many sensitive issues. Furthermore, scenic painting was related to his teaching job in the architectural department of Tsinghua University, and hence what he was really doing was “killing two birds with one stone”.

　　The aspiring artists of that time were all engaged in genre painting, and therefore the insignificant theme of scenery was unlikely to become the focus of attention or was unlikely to have importance attached to it in an ideologically laden society. The road to scenic painting is narrow but fairly even, winning no political favor but not exposed to many risks either. Wu Guanzhong’s switch to scenery as the theme of his paintings immunized him from all political pressures and groundless criticisms. Meanwhile, it also secured a feasible road to keep his art alive in such a special political milieu.

　　The realistic style was another wise choice Wu Guanzhong made for his creation of scenic paintings in that, given he had been regarded as a “fortress for bourgeois formalism” and even scenic paintings could not be exempted from the fabricated cap of “formalism”, it was difficult to continue the painting style prevailing during his stay in Paris in a climate which characterized formal experimentation as Formalism, a “hooligan” that is undeserving of existence. Wu Guanzhong’s works during this period were realistic in approach and exact in form, allowing no room for attacks from orthodox positions relating to realism.

　　Beijing was an ideal place as the first post in his journey to scenic painting in that it is home to many tall and ancient buildings, lush and green trees, pavilions and towers of various shapes and sizes as well as avenues and alleys. Wu Guanzhong worked and lived in Beijing, so it was convenient and timesaving for him to glean materials for artistic creation. To begin painting in Beijing is undoubtedly the third wise choice he made after he returned to his homeland. Scenic painting, a realistic style and Beijing, therefore, constituted three starting points for Wu Guanzhong’s artistic creation in the 1950s. Without these three starting points, his art could hardly find a foothold in China at that time and all the artistic accomplishments he later achieved are the fruit borne from the gradual flowering of these three starting points.

　　As a scenic painter Wu Guanzhong started in Beijing, but Beijing was not the first place that witnessed his dabbling in scenic painting. Rather, he started painting scenery on the bank of West Lake as early as his student days when he was studying in Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. When his first individual painting exhibition was held in Chongqing in 1943, quite a few scenic paintings from life were exhibited. The three years he spent studying in Paris witnessed more engagement in painting scenery.

　　According to Zhang Anzhi’s recollections, when he arrived in Paris from London in the early 1950, Wu Guanzhong brought him to his dormitory and “took out the paintings he created in recent years from above his bed, under the bed, from wardrobes and bookcases for our joint appreciation”. In addition to figure sketches, these paintings also included “numerous scenic oil paintings from life”, many of which were scenic paintings of European cities created during his journeys on holiday. The urban and suburban scenery of Paris more often than not found its way to Wu Guanzhong’s scenic paintings, “quite a few of which are about avenues and alleys, lonely road lamps and flyovers bridging both sides of a street and some of which depict houses and buildings of various shapes and heights as well as light gray walls bathed in oblique sunlight. These scenic paintings are delicate in tint and relaxed in brush stroke, pregnant with passion in tranquility and they impart simplicity. I felt then he was palpably indebted to the influence of M.Utrillo (1883～1955) and he also agreed.”

　　It did not occur to Wu Guanzhong that he would one day become a scenic painter when he was studying in Paris. During that period, he was more committed to figure painting than scenic painting but the efforts he made on scenic painting in his early artistic career undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for his later development as a scenic painter.

　　In the early and middle 1950s, Wu Guanzhong, as a scenic painter, left his footprints on avenues and alleys as well as towers and temples, among others, throughout Beijing and spread them from Beijing to other places: to Mount Wutai in 1954, to Shaoxing in 1956, to Isle Dayu in Shandong province, Mount Jinggang and Ruijin in Jiangxi province 1957, Hongtong county in Shanxi province in 1958 and Hainan Island in 1959…The number of his outings for painting was increasing, his pace increasing in speed and his journey extending farther a field. Wu Guanzhong had amassed a large number of works by then. The magazine Fine Arts published reproductions of his paintings and articles and his collections of scenic paintings and some reproductions of his individual paintings were also published in Beijing People’s Publishing House of Fine Arts and Shanghai People’s Publishing House respectively. Ten years of diligent painting fostered Wu Guanzhong’s status as a scenic painter in the Chinese fine arts circle.

　　1960s: Maturity of scenic oil paintings and summary of his artistic theories

　　In the 1950s and 1960s, Wu Guanzhong’s articles could scarcely be seen in publications and the opportunities to introduce his works were equally limited. The magazine Fine Arts afforded him two opportunities, namely, the No.7 issue in 1959, which published reproductions of his two scenic oil paintings expressing Mount Jinggang together with a short article titled Anecdotes of Painting from Life in Mount Jinggang (if the “scenery” was not related to the revolutionary base, it was unknown whether they could be published) and the No.2 issue in 1962, which published a reproduction of his new painting Bkra-shis-Ihun-po and article titled On Scenic Painting in addition to an article titled On the Charm of Oil Painting by Ai Zhongxing that gave an overall evaluation of Chinese oil painting in general and positive comments on Wu Guanzhong’s oil painting style and his masterpiece Bkra-shis-Ihun-po in particular.

　　Themed with Chinese oil painting, that issue of Fine Arts published the articles of three heavyweight painters in the Chinese oil painting circle (Ai Zhongxing, Luo Gongliu and Dong Xiwen) as well as works by many senior, middle-aged and young oil painting artists. Wu Guanzhong made his debut as a scenic oil painting artist and was conspicuously in ranking among them. This was undoubtedly a fairly significant opportunity to rivet his status in the Chinese oil painting circle.

　　In effect, Wu Guanzhong was mature by then in terms of artistic thought and creative style alike. If the Anecdotes of Painting from Life in Mount Jinggang published in 1959 was characterized as merely recording some trivial anecdotes during painting from life without theoretical illustration, then On Scenic Painting presented fairly systematic propositions for the creation of scenic paintings. His propositions can be roughly divided as follows:

　　1. Scenic painting shall uphold creation of artistic conception as its premise. The theory of “All sceneries are pregnant with emotion” initiated by Wang Guowei put forward a significant yardstick for the creation of scenic paintings. Scenic paintings can never just seek freshness or paint sceneries literally to entertain viewers. It is the artistic conception and creation that ground the paintings, which really impress viewers with the idea of freshness. Attaching importance to creation of artistic conceptions in paintings is a significant principle Wu Guanzhong unfailingly adhered to in his later creation of scenic paintings.

　　2. Emphasizing creation of scenic painting from painting from life. He disfavored the western artists’ approach to securing a scene through the choice of a “dead corner” while favoring traditional mountain-water artists’ approaches featuring adequate exposure to scenery prior to the organization of scenes, namely, visits to scenic spots first followed by artistic conception and subsequent graphic composition in sketch book or mind. When the time comes for painting from life, they more often than not change painting location several times before the painting from life is accomplished. This practice of repeatedly moving easels and changing perspective is called “integration” in painting from life, which incorporates creative factors. Wu Guanzhong defines this approach created out of painting from life as “dressing mineral ores and refining steel at the same time in mountains”. Despite that it is still “against scenery”, it is no longer simply “painting from life against scenery”. Rather, it is a kind of creation against nature.

　　3. Based on the above, he further illustrated the meaning of painting from life, namely, “Painting from life is just one of the approaches to painting so it cannot be used as the only yardstick to categorize paintings into creative works or practice works.” One chapter of Formal Beauty in Paintings in 1979 is dedicated to the elaboration of creative works and practice works. In this he gave a clear illustration of the relationship between creative works and practice works. Furthermore, he argued that the benefits of painting from life directly as opposed to painting scenery lie in the impression the direct experience gives of the sensitivity to colors and effects of brush strokes, which otherwise, as a rule, cannot be retained.” Painting from life not directly by facing scenery is prone to the loss of the ephemeral feeling of the freshness of colors derived from changes in nature”. As such, he disfavors the approach of “mining in mountains” and then “refining steel” back in the house.

　　Wu Guanzhong actually had established through exploration “approaches to artistic creation through painting from life” that integrate the merits inherent in Sino-western paintings, namely, free organization of images first according to perception followed by painting from life directly by facing the scenery. This approach not only avoids the limitation of facing one corner which vexes the impressionist artists but also averts the defects inherent in classical artists who create scenic paintings in house far away from the real scenery.

　　It is therefore not hard to see from above summary that the reason why Wu Guanzhong left his footprints everywhere in the world actually is this, that he adheres to painting directly by facing his artistic targets and artistic creation through painting from life instead of subjective fabrication in closed studios. Deviation from targets, in his eyes, equals breaking away from sensuous objects and separation from emotional “stimulus”. Therefore, only by facing artistic targets can artists engage themselves in the process of art being propelled from sensuous fountains, hence the stimulated state necessary for painting can be maintained.

　　The refreshing vigor and vitality exuding from Wu Guanzhong’s scenic paintings derive from the sensuous fountain he never deserts. It is this very “sensuous fountain” that fosters and maintains the passion for creation in him. Meanwhile, no traces of practice works can be found in Wu Guanzhong’s scenic paintings from life simply because his scenic paintings are based on an adequate exposure to scenery, deliberate artistic conception and graphic composition as well as constant alteration of painting locations, which ensure the wholeness in artistic conception and graphic composition.

　　His article On Scenic Paintings, which is merely about 2000 words, and paintings from life in Tibet represented by Bkra-shis-Ihun-po (a temple in Tibet) signal his maturity in the creation of scenic oil paintings and the success of more than a decade long exploration in scenic painting.

　　1970s: Realistic paintings of local landscape and customs

　　The 1970s were a fruitful and fertile period for Wu Guanzhong in his creation of oil paintings. In 1972, Wu Guanzhong, who was then laboring in the so-called Cadre’s School, was allowed to paint on Sundays. He took up the brush that had been shelved for more than 7 years to start the work for which he had been yearning for a long time on the yellow land of the northern countryside with dung baskets as an easel. He foraged for and gleaned novel painting materials from among the uninviting villages and houses that he has become most accustomed to: “ I walked through tranquil fields to and fro every day for couple of times, noticing that grasses were sprouting stealthily, much greener in the afternoon than in the morning…In just the wink of an eye, the uninviting fields are flooded in light-purple flowers, falling prey to human feet…The vines of white gourds are dotted with flowers and small fluffy white gourds”. These affectionate descriptions fully reflect the artist’s communion with nature and his works during this period brimmed with luxuriant rustic tastes due to his true experience of life. The rustic and innocent rural scenes like sorghum, pumpkins, wild chrysanthemums, wild flowers in the mountains, doors made of firewood, and farmers’ yards covered with vines, among other subjects, all found their way into his paintings. These works, compared with those with big themes, are affable and more touching to viewers when we look back on them.

　　Like his classic Bkra-shis-Ihun-po of the early 1960s, Sparrows of the early 1970s is undoubtedly the representative work reflecting Wu Guanzhong’s life in the countryside during this period: an expanse of dense bushes, trees dyed to golden yellow by the season, a flock of sparrows perching quietly in the branches of trees. The most common scenes of late autumn in China’s northern plain were presented by the artist with vigor and vitality. The entanglement of trunks presented with horizontal brush strokes (typical of Wu Guanzhong’s approach, in effect similar to the approach of materialization of lines through accumulation of dots by Li Keran) and thin branches, dotted by sparrows like musical notes, ends up in a symphony rich in rustic tastes in the northern golden autumn. Despite that the artist was moody during the period when he labored in the countryside, his delight in taking up the brush and engaging himself in art found full expression in this colorful work.

　　Despite that Wu Guanzhong is noted for his paintings of the watery country south of the Yangtze River featuring white walls and black tiles as well as small bridges with water running under them, his artistic career after returning to his homeland, however, starts from paintings of urban and rural sceneries in the north. He left his footprints in the avenues and alleys throughout Beijing in the 1950s and his Early Spring in the Northern Country of the 1960s together with Warm Spring in a Mountain Village of the 1970s give full expression to his sensitivity to the changing seasons in the north. Bathing in warm sunlight, everything came back to life on the moistened earth and farmers began their farming again…

　　Among Wu Guanzhong’s numerous excellent works of the 1970s are his classical Red Buildings in Tsingtao and Hometown of Lun Xun, both of which are set in panoramic scenes with magnificent artistic conception and verve despite that they are not very big in scale (Hometown of Lun Xun is comparatively bigger but does not exceed 1.4 meters in scale). The density and number of groups of red buildings are obviously exaggerated purposely by the artist, hence reducing the space that tree clusters and the sea take up in the picture and intensifying the oppressive feel these colonial buildings inflict on people of modern times. The artist’s panoramic depiction of Shaoxing in Hometown of Lu Xun is exceptionally successful. The white walls and black tiles located in the visual focus, surrounded by a large expanse of gray water and sky, are splendid and conspicuous. Part stretches of houses are covered by the nearby gray green woods, exempting the scene from being exposed to the viewers’ single attention. A length of gray wall and the white houses in the lower right corner not only correspond in tone with the gray river course and houses in the central picture but take on the role of “contraction” in the spatial structure of the picture as well, intensifying the feeling of extension towards the upper left corner and making the entire space large and far-reaching. Small scenes featuring small bridges with water running under them are most typical of Wu Guanzhong’s works depicting the watery country south of the Yangtze River and panoramic expression like this can rarely be seen. As such, this work can be regarded as a classical one in his realistic period of the 1970s.

　　Paintings in the 1980s-1990s that incorporate freehand brushwork elements

　　Wu Guanzhong dabbled with water-ink painting in the free time of creation of oil paintings in 1974. He had not fostered his own approach to water-ink painting in his initial explorative years, hence many oil painting traces can be found in his water-ink paintings. He became increasingly mature in water-ink since the 1980s, with frequent excellent water-ink works, which in turn exerted influence on his oil painting creation. If the hallmarks of his oil paintings of the 1970s are realistic and focused on in-depth and specific depiction of artistic targets, then the elements of freehand brushwork typical of water-ink painting progressively find their way to his oil color paintings created since the 1980s. A Stone Grinder of 1980 gives full play to the broad-brush strokes full of passion that are rightly considered as the earliest hint of this freehand brushwork trend. This kind of succinct and generalized freehand brushwork can find clearer expression in Home of 1985, which, based on black and white tints, might as well be deemed a water-ink painting created with the free use of luxuriant oil colors. Home, pregnant with intense hometown sentiments, can be regarded with a degree of safety as the pivot on his road to switch from oil painting style realism to freehand brushwork. It is a classical work signaling his stride towards individualized and localized paintings with oil color as its medium.

　　Wu Guanzhong pushed oil paintings full of local freehand brushwork elements to new heights in his series of works expressing Paris and England in late 1980s and early 1990s. This kind of image-based painting approach can find concentrated expression in a series of representative works like New Paris, Doves, Concorde Square, The Red Mill, Montmartre, The Arch of Triumph, among others. Unlike scenic paintings of the 1970s, which attached importance to the in-depth description of details, these paintings witnessed the evolvement of the artist’s artistic approach that featured the recording of his initial perception of scenery through sketches first followed by the transcription of it on canvas rather than on-site accomplishment of painting from life. To be specially mentioned is his Night Café, which, compared with the same-themed work by Van Gogh in 1888, is more intense in image and more expressive in color.

　　Wu Guanzhong’s exploration of artistic localization on canvas also finds expression in his experimentation with lines in his oil color paintings. Despite that lines also had their presence felt in the oil paintings he created in the past from time to time, they, however, were more often than not drawn with the brush stem. In Autumn onto the Wall, lines resembling water-ink are presented through the medium of oil color. If we take a look at Dots and Lines Greet Spring he created in 1996, it is hard, if not impossible, to figure out what is more impressive in oil color and ink color in terms of the employment of line.

　　Among the oil paintings Wu Guanzhong created in the 1990s, what merit special mention are Lotus in Ice and Snow (also called Red Dragonfly), Water Alley and Love of the City, among others. The former elicits a taste for water-ink through the medium of rich oil color; the second painting returns to the taste intrinsic to oil painting in light of facet and line structure and the latter combines the tastes of both of the former paintings. They all reach artistic heights in the accomplishments Wu Guanzhong achieves in the field of oil painting. To be specially mentioned is Water Alley, which can be regarded with a degree of safety as the most classical among the oil paintings he created late in his life.

　　Among Wu Guanzhong’s oil paintings of the 1990s are figurative works that must also be mentioned. They are the outcome of a long yearned for return to the artistic home by Wu Guanzhong as a world respected scenic painter. The desire to create figurative oil painting is very likely to have been stimulated while creating The Red Mill and the charm of the human body eventually provoked his desire to paint from a model. However, the flair he fosters in the process of scenic painting for decades, when employed in figurative painting, presents the human body as poetic as “scenery” rather than the original structure, skin color and quality feel vested in the human body. Like mountain, water and tree, the human body is in essence part of nature and, hence, if the robed human is endowed with social attributes, then the naked human is part of nature without identifiable social attributes. Therefore, it is just natural for Wu Guanzhong to paint the human body as part of scenery.

　　Wu Guanzhong’s artistic achievements in oil painting

　　Wu Guanzhong’s artistic achievements are comprehensive, materializing in the process of inter-assimilation and interaction of various artistic media. It is therefore hard to evaluate his artistic achievements in one single aspect. If, however, his oil paintings must be independently and individually evaluated, it is safe to say that they have blazed a trail that is rich in Chinese local features and traditional spirit and has translated the realistic trend prevalent in the oil painting circle to freehand brushwork. This is due to his comprehensive integration of the spirit of traditional freehand brushwork with his scenic oil paintings.

　　Wu Guanzhong returned to his homeland from France in 1950 with fervent patriotism but his talent could hardly be given free play due to his incompatible artistic schooling with the Chinese social milieu of that time. His talent and gift were quelled for 30 years without the opportunity to have their presence felt. However, he never gave up his pursuit of art and many classical watercolor and oil color paintings were created during this period. Despite that Wu Guanzhong reached his 60s in late 1970s when China adopted the policy of reform and opening up, the arrival of new opportunity eventually facilitated the realization of the dream he had cherished for 30 years. He has since been galloping freely in his art with a wider visual field and relaxed mindset and his luxuriant passion for life has been given free expression in art.

　　If artists of the 20th century in China fail to realize the switch in cultural mindset and aesthetic taste facilitated by the contemporary cultural milieu and cannot perceive that this kind of new cultural mindset and aesthetic taste is sure to be reflected in new cultural norms, then they can hardly find their position in a time when tradition merges with modernity and the east with the west. Wu Guanzhong firmly based his artistic choice on the themes of his times, and hence he rightly located his perspective in art and the expanded room for his artistic creation.

　　Incorporating water-ink elements into his oil paintings and modern western shape-formative concepts into his water-ink paintings alike, Wu Guanzhong makes diligent exploration in two different artistic fields, incorporating oriental and occidental art together. In this way, he established a new quality and taste in his art, which materialize in the merging of Oriental and Occidental art. To a master-level artist, no accomplishment is comparable to the pivotal role he plays in orienting the aesthetic taste of an era.

　　As early as the initial years of reform and opening up, Wu Guanzhong was already a trailblazer in the switch from an ossified creation mode to a modern creation mode in the Chinese fine art circle. His works together with his rallying cry has rightly placed him as the flagman ushering Chinese fine art into the era of opening up. In the ensuing years, his impact on Chinese contemporary art as well as his efforts on and accomplishments in localization of oil painting and modernization of Chinese painting are widely and undoubtedly recognized. It is no exaggeration to state that Wu Guanzhong’s status and value in the history of Chinese contemporary art cannot be overstated and he, following his mentor Lin Fengmian, should rightly be respected as a trailblazer in Chinese modern art. Simply because of this, he was repeatedly under fire, which, however, further riveted his lofty status as one of the trailblazers of Chinese contemporary art.

　　Elliot once said: “To a first-class artist, there is surely something beyond himself to which he must acknowledge his allegiance and devote his piety to win him unique status.” Wu Guanzhong devoted all his life to art, braving wind and rain and witnessing ups and downs. Despite that his artistic diligence and commitment resulted in a very large number of works, he was often under fire from all directions. As such, his life is unfailingly checkered and contentious, something all artistic trailblazers have to confront. Anyone can irresponsibly vilify him but history will never. Justice will eventually be meted out by impartial history.