These works are the wash paintings produced by Wu Guanzhong during 1997 to 2006 (including a small number of calligraphies and common seals). From all of the works, we can see that during this period Wu Guanzhong was exploring in art the direction he had already defined and made brilliant achievements. The facts have proven fully that he was not only unprecedented in his innovation of the picture quality, style and skill of traditional wash painting, but also he systematically raised his own art theory, which deeply influenced the innovative direction of contemporary wash painting. In the following text, I put his creativity into a certain cultural background, and then objectively, historically, and comprehensively investigate his academic background, his pursuit in art and the difficulties and solutions he encountered according to his social context. I will also analyze the differences between his art works and the tradition to which they speak, and try to discover the factors that influenced change. In my opinion, through this investigation we not only can objectively get to know his orientation in terms of the value of art, but also establish a serious attitude toward the research of culture related subjects. For example, in the circumstance of today we question the process involved in the inheritance of traditional culture, how can we treat foreign cultures, and how can we open up new paths for wash works, and so on. Undoubtedly, this means a lot, even just to contemporary ink-wash art.

　　01 Wu Guanzhong’s academic background and the values he pursues

　　It is safe to state that the direction Wu Guanzhong orients in his innovation of water-ink painting and the values he perseveringly pursues are deeply rooted in his specific academic background.

　　Wu Guanzhong Chronicles [1] clearly shows that, at the age of 17, that is in 1936, he studied in Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Anyone familiar with the history of Chinese contemporary fine arts education knows Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts basically transplanted French educational modes for its own use with the background of the May 4th Movement in which the artistic thought emphasizing “learning from Europe” prevailed. The majority of its faculty, including its president Lin Fengmian and noted professors like Wu Dayu and Liu Kaiqu, among others, had studied in France and returned to their homeland after completion of their artistic apprenticeship in France. As Wu Guanzhong said: “In terms of teaching approach and artistic view, Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts can be considered the China-based branch school of French fine arts academies.” [2] This brought forth two results, namely, on the one hand, the academy laid more stress on the students’ direct confrontation with objective targets through “painting from life” in its teaching in stead of copy and imitation of ancient model paintings; and on the other hand, the academy also upheld the French Expressionist painting school. Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, hence, constitutes a sharp contrast with the Art Department of the Central Academy under the steerage of Xu Beihong, which primarily introduced realism initiated by the French Academic School. One thing for sure is that despite that Wu Guanzhong once studied Chinese painting under the tutorship of Pan Tianshou, among others, during his stay in Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, the field he eventually majored in was the oil painting ushered in from the west, which substantially exposed him to French educational and artistic philosophy. Wu Guanzhong smoothly passed the examination for public-funded overseas study and was admitted to the Paris-based State Academy of Fine Arts in France, studying and doing research on oil painting under the tutorship of Professor J. M. Souverbie. During this period, the young Wu Guanzhong conducted a thorough and profound study of European artistic traditions in general and the new artistic creations burgeoning since the 19th century in particular. In addition, he conducted profound research on how to employ color, line, rhythm and rhyme, among others, in painting according to the Formalism typical of the French modernist painting school, which exerted a substantial impact on his artistic work through out his life.

　　Brimming with the aspiration of making a contribution to his homeland, the 31-year-old Wu Guanzhong returned to his motherland in 1950. Through the recommendation by Dong Xiwen, his former alumnus of Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, he was employed as a lecturer at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. As a young man simmering with enthusiasm for the pursuit of art, Wu Guanzhong could not wait to pour out “unreservedly” whatever he learnt in France to his students. He enthusiastically elaborated on various contemporary artistic schools in the west in his lectures, ranging from impressionist painting to abstract art, among others, and attached great importance to the unrivalled significance of formal beauty and self-exhibition in artistic creation. Such behavior, however, was obviously inadvisable in a cultural milieu dominated by politics and stressing “Content precedes form”. In 1952 when the “Cultural and Artistic Rectification Movement” began Wu Guanzhong immediately was criticized by an overwhelming number of students. Obviously not adapting to the teaching demands of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Wu Guanzhong was transferred to teach watercolor in the Architectural Department of Tsinghua University a year later. In the years that followed, he taught in the Fine Arts Department of Beijing Normal University, Beijing Academy of Arts and the Central Academy of Applied Fine Arts successively. Despite that Wu Guanzhong was edged out of the core educational circle and creation circle of the Chinese fine arts arena and seemed slightly marginalized, disfavored and lonely from 1953 to 1976 (he was even prohibited from painting for a certain period of time during Cultural Revolution), he was more stable in life and meanwhile unexpectedly attained a comparatively relaxed environment for his artistic exploration. In artistic creation, he eventually gave up creation of figure paintings due to the criticism that he unjustifiably incurred for “uglification of workers, farmers and soldiers” and completely switched to scenic painting. Tapping into the opportunity of leading students to painting from life in nature and other opportunities, he left his footprints on every nook and cranny of our homeland, which shows the direction for his “nationalization of oil painting”. In one aspect he lays substantial stress on the role painting from life plays in artistic creation and brings into full play western theories and approaches related to formal beauty in painting; in another aspect, he organically integrates some significant elements of Chinese artistic aesthetics like “image”, “idealistic expression” and “artistic conception”, among others, into scenic oil paintings. In the process, he also initiated a unique approach to artistic creation featuring “painting from life through alteration of locations”. Wu Guanzhong argues: “I esteem Xuan Zang but he merely translated some pages of Buddhist scripture. Nationalization of oil painting, however, is a job not easier than the translation of Buddhist scriptures. I seek truth from facts, proceeding forward incessantly from scenic painting, artistic conception and the aesthetic tastes popular with Chinese people. Infatuated with artistic practice, I do not have time to summarize my artistic theory. I only know I’m committed to the pursuit of affections cherished by the people, the breath of nature, traditional artistic style and western contemporary formal laws.” [3] Perhaps Wu Guanzhong did not expect at first that his approaches to artistic creation materializing through diligent artistic exploration not only fostered for him a unique style of oil painting creation but eventually contributed to his great accomplishments in water-ink painting as well. Art theorist Gao Meiqing once perceptively pointed out that Wu Guanzhong’s new style of water-ink painting is in effect “the transplantation of his nationalized oil painting style on Xuan paper, hence retaining a substantial proportion of the chromatic and formal laws of western painting while meanwhile incorporating the aesthetic tastes of Chinese people through refined image and the energy of volatile ink.” [4] This clearly shows Wu Guanzhong’s water-ink painting is closely linked to his exploration of oil painting and without specific study of his oil paintings, we can not really understand his water-ink paintings.

　　The dethroning of the “Gang of Four” provided a good opportunity for Wu Guanzhong to realize his aspirations in life and also heralded for him a period witnessing the climax of his artistic creation. Considering the special value evinced from Wu Guanzhong’s artistic exploration, the leaders of the Central Academy of Applied Fine Arts held a personal painting exhibition for him in 1978 to uphold his artistic achievements. The formal beauty and distinctive artistic individuality evinced from his paintings substantially inspired the Chinese fine arts circle at that time. Therefore, his personal painting exhibition was held in various places successively and he was also invited to paint and give lectures in many parts of China, which combined to facilitate the mushrooming of his academic influence nationwide. The nationwide spread of Wu Guanzhong’s theory on formal beauty, however, is primarily indebted to the series of articles and discussions that were published at that time.

　　The first issue of Fine Arts in 1978 published A Letter from Chairman Mao to Comrade Chen Yi Elaborating on Poems, in which the form of poetry was discussed. Due to Mao Zedong’s special status in China, the Chinese fine arts circle could from then openly discuss issues related to artistic form. In the ensuing year, Wu Guanzhong published The Beauty in Form in Paintings in the fifth issue of Fine Arts in the form of an informal essay, in which he pointedly argued, “The visual thinking in shape-construction art specifically refers to formal thinking. Formal beauty is a key linkage in fine arts creation and our unique approach to serving people as well.” The majority of theoretical articles related to beauty and form in art published in Fine Arts successively since then emphasize the independent significance of formal beauty and oppose undue intervention from politics, which gave a substantial impetus to the formation of a new creative atmosphere. Obviously feeling that he had not fully expressed his artistic views, Wu Guanzhong further expounded them in his On Abstract Beauty [5], arguing, “Abstract beauty is the core of formal beauty and love of formal beauty and abstract beauty is people’s instinct.” He recommended that the fine arts circle make greater effort to study western Abstractionism. Meanwhile, the literature circle was sparring over stream of consciousness, the poetry circle was discussing misty poetry while the music circle was debating voice singing and breath singing. Wu Guanzhong’s artistic concern is not simply limited to formal beauty and abstract beauty, because since 1981 he has targeted his artistic elaboration at the stereotyped artistic yardsticks prevailing in the Chinese fine arts circle at that time. In a seminar jointly sponsored by the Beijing Society of Fine Arts and the Beijing Association of Oil Painting, he emphasized clearly “independent existence of formal beauty precedes independent existence of fine art. I emphasize the independence of formal beauty in appreciation-type fine arts works and hope to give full play to the unique formal approach in artistic creation. We shall never indulge ourselves in the hackneyed artistic stereotype of ‘Content precedes form’”. [6]

　　Like thunder in the sky, Wu Guanzhong’s speeches invited considerable attention in the fine arts circle and facilitated unheard of sparring on formal beauty, abstract beauty as well as artistic content and form for as much as four years. Despite that the number of articles published against his views is slightly larger in number than those in support of them, Wu Guanzhong’s artistic views actually won the nod of the majority of artists. The reason is that the predominance of politics-oriented content over artistic form had prevailed for a long time and the stereotyped prejudice of priority of content to form ended up as a legitimate excuse for the intervention of politics in art and a rampant authoritarianism, which substantially stinted artists’ exploration of artistic form and expression of artistic individuality. Opposition to the predominance of content over form, just like its contemporary artistic conundrum of “art for art’s sake”, is aimed at expressing antagonism to political intervention in art through returning to the noumenon of art and the establishment of a theoretical basis for new approaches to artistic expression. Failing to see this and evaluating in isolation the concepts and argumentations Wu Guanzhong uses in his articles, people may fail to understand the profound cultural significance his speeches had and why aestheticism and stress on noumenon of art are so prevalent in a certain period of time, even exerting a permanent influence on the fine arts circle.

　　It should be pointed out that Wu Guanzhong’s artistic views are the fruits borne out of his long-years of artistic practice and independent thinking. He never expected his articles and speeches would be the spadework for a campaign of theoretical sparring and play a pivotal role in the cross-century fine arts revolution. His perseverant work in the pursuit of formal beauty herald a new painting style and facilitate the radical switch in the process of Chinese artistic history. Personally, I think this is because his artistic views substantially comply with the demands of cultural development in a new era and voice what the majority of artists want to say but have not yet said.

　　02 Wu Guanzhong’s artistic objectives

　　Wu Guanzhong began to engage himself in the creation of water-ink painting from 1974, that is, at the age of 55. The three direct reasons underlying his engagement in water-ink creation are: firstly, in the early 1970s when he was painting for hotels in Beijing, he was affected by the water-ink painters who surrounded him and he was inspired to create water-ink painting; secondly, the space of his house at that time was too narrow. Compared with oil paintings, water ink paintings are easier to create and store; lastly, his water-ink paintings instilled with a modern awareness were well received and achieved great success when they were exhibited in Japan in 1975, which, in particular, inspired him profoundly. According to art historian Li Zhujin, Wu Guanzhong discovered in the process of his artistic creation that “ he can give vent to his affection for mountain and water through traditional water-ink painting and at the same time he can bring the tenets of ‘nationalization of oil painting’ into more adequate implementation. This ended up as a new trail he blazed for art, namely painting mountains and water in his motherland based on the merits of water-ink tools and pursuit of new artistic conceptions influenced by western approaches.” [7] At first, Wu Guanzhong basically shuttled between oil painting and water-ink painting but he increasingly gave priority of his creation to water-ink painting, which undoubtedly boast exceptional significance to him, despite that even without the water-ink paintings he also possesses a unique status in Chinese art history. The inherent factors underlying this actually are, on the one hand, water-ink painting to some extent is the symbol and hallmark of Chinese identity due to its history of development spanning more than a millennium; on the other hand, in his pursuit of modernization of Chinese water-ink painting through the integration of west with east, Wu Guanzhong successfully facilitated a transcendence of his water-ink paintings over Chinese culture and the incorporation of them into world culture.

　　Wu Guanzhong’s creative practice adequately proves he successfully ushered what he has obtained in the exploration of the nationalization of oil painting into water-ink creation despite that he did not receive strict and systematic training in Chinese traditional water-ink painting. The artistic objective he was in pursuit of at that time was to integrate the fruits borne out of exploration of forms of western contemporary art with Chinese artistic traditions to facilitate the meeting of water-ink painting and the world artistic tide. In Wu Guanzhong’s own words, he is in earnest pursuit of “modernization of water-ink painting”. What merits special commendation is that Wu Guanzhong realized his artistic objectives in an exceptionally unaffected and natural way due to his masterly command of Chinese and western artistic traditions. I cannot agree with Shui Tianzhong more when he argues “Wu Guanzhong’s significance lies in his initiation of a new possibility of creation of water-ink paintings pregnant with Chinese tastes without reference to concrete artistic forms and techniques fathered by ancient artistic masters at a time when development of Chinese traditional water-ink painting came to a perplexing situation.” [8] However, I would like to add one point here, namely, without reference to the system of realistic water-ink painting established by Xu Beihong, contemporary water-ink paintings take on a totally distinctive look.

　　According to the introduction to Wu Guanzhong in these volumes, his water-ink painting creation is based on scenic depiction, quick sketch or transplanted oil painting. [9] Seemingly, his three approaches to creation of water-ink paintings are substantially distinctive but essentially are closely linked to painting from life. In Wu Guanzhong’s artistic dictionary, however, painting from life is a significant channel for foraging for a visual stimulant as the source and creative inspiration in nature rather than a pipeline for mechanical and objective presentation of scenes directly under the artists’ eye. As a matter of fact, the majority of his works are created out of his spiritual communication with nature impromptu, which means his approach to the creation of water-ink painting is radically different from those of traditional water-ink artists. Whoever is familiar with the history of Chinese fine art knows that a complete set of strict artistic formulae and norms including yardsticks for painting and brush ink as well as structure of artistic conceptions have been fostered in the process of development of Chinese traditional water-ink painting for more than a millennium. Consequently, students, as a rule, will first learn concrete formulae for painting through imitation and copy till they have an accurate mastery of them and then they will be exposed to concrete scenery. Seldom conducting on-the-spot painting from life, they just reconstruct traditional artistic formulae in accordance with special experiences and artistic conceptions. [10] As a result, no matter how distinctively traditional artists pursue expression of their artistic individuality, they are loyal to traditional brush strokes and ancient painting models to such an extent that some critics doggedly argue paintings created not complying with Chinese traditional artistic formulae cannot be defined as Chinese paintings. [11] Such traditional teaching methods undoubtedly can be profoundly justified but when they evolve to be formalist or improperly handled, they create the mistake that water-ink painting creation should be appreciated simply for its resemblance to model paintings and ancient artistic works. Furthermore, even if some of the artists trained in this way return to nature, they tend to prefer scenes similar to those in model paintings and ancient artistic works. Obviously, Wu Guanzhong did not intend to follow the track beaten by ancient artists, which is not to say that people will not appreciate and recognize his works as Chinese paintings. With a view to realizing his artistic objectives, he daringly scrapped a substantial number of traditional formulae for water-ink painting creation and creatively established his unique approaches to creation of water-ink paintings on the basis of western theories of formal beauty, which obviously merits our special commendation. (I will elaborate on Wu Guanzhong’s approaches to artistic creation and solutions to artistic problems in the next section, so I will not give detailed description of them here.) Furthermore, it should also be pointed out that, despite the fact that Wu Guanzhong lays great stress on the role abstract beauty plays in fine arts creation, he never broke away from nature and indulge himself in an abstract game of personal brush and ink. This, as Zhang Ding points out, is owing to his adherence to the connection with people. He once told his former classmates in France: “You can give free play to what you cherish in your heart in the west but I have to consider my people, who total 1 billion in number,” [12] adding “Professor Michael Sullivan, an English critic who gives enthusiastic introduction to Chinese contemporary art and cares about the theoretical sparring in the Chinese contemporary fine art circle, voices his opinions about abstraction in his letter to me. The professor argues that abstract painting is distinctive from non-figural painting in that ‘abstraction’ means extraction of certain artistic forms from the concrete images in nature, which can find expression in Badashanren’s works, Zhao Wuji’s oil paintings and the ‘root’ of my paintings while ‘non-figural’ creation refers to total loss of connection with concrete images in nature, through which geometrical images are created, as in Mondrian’s works. The professor’s analysis is more accurate in that, in our artistic apprenticeship, we more often than not take ‘abstract’ and ‘non-figural’ as two synonyms and fail to identify the difference between them. Through more profound artistic exploration, I realized all artistic forms and images including what we take as ideal or strange unexceptionally derive from real life despite whether they are far or near and of direct or indirect origins. If an artist creates a painting that no one can understand and he personally believes as unique in the universe, it is in effect no more than a matrix without inspiration from life. The distinction between ‘abstract’ and ‘non-figural’ is that non-figural painting is a kite disconnected from its line while abstract painting is a kite that is perseveringly linked to its line no matter how high it flies. Mondrian made as he did contributions to artistic exploration and research but from the perspective of emotional communication with people, I prefer kites connected with their lines, namely, artistic works connected with people.” [13] As such, in Wu Guanzhong’s eyes, abstract art and abstract visual elements are two totally distinct categories. In terms of pursuit of communication with people, he unfailingly lays stress on the role concrete images play in the independent existence of artistic works while in terms of pursuit of artistic beauty, he attaches great importance to extraction of abstract beauty from objective nature to facilitate artistic expression. Convinced that the latter is the key to success in his works, he puts forward his artistic view of “form precedes content (artistic conception)”. Consequently, his art eventually diverges from realistic art and abstract art as well. What needs to be added here is that Wu Guanzhong resorted to concrete images more than to abstract images in the paintings he created in his later life, which shows his return to traditional approaches to artistic creation.

　　The inspiration Wu Guanzhong brings to modern water-ink painters are: firstly, despite that water-ink painting originates from antiquity, this form of art is far from doomed. Rather, it can develop in modern times hand in hand with western modern art; secondly, artists engaged in creation of modern water-ink paintings should foster a global perspective. In the process, those exclusively upholding oriental art or occidental art are both extremely wrong. The former group of artists is always stinted in a closed oriental artistic frame, refusing to accept any category of foreign culture and fanatically opposing other artists’ reasonable reference to foreign culture. Their perspective is grounded on the premise that national culture is superior to foreign culture. In their mindsets, learning from foreign culture means antagonism to nationality and tradition, which serve as the yardsticks for them to evaluate artistic works. The challenge facing them is this, that when they inherit tradition in a traditional way, they fail to put forward solutions to the transformation of tradition in modernity, which aborts their fulfillment of the historical mission of developing and improving tradition and impedes their participation in an international dialogue. The latter group of artists ends up as “megaphones” or “duplicators” for western culture consciously or unconsciously basing their thought on the premise that foreign culture is superior to national culture, so they can never create contemporary or modern art with Chinese characteristics. The English philosopher Karl Popper argues, “If one of the clashing cultures thinks it is superior to all other cultures, then the cultural clash is bound to lose some of its value. If other cultures think likewise, then the value of cultural clash is hamstrung in that the most significant value of cultural clash lies in cultivation of critical attitudes. In particular, if one culture dismisses itself as inferior to another culture, then as the faithful and existentialists describe, the critical attitude to learning from another culture is bound to degenerate into indiscriminate accepting of and conversion to the other culture.” [14] Is there anyone skeptical of this conclusion?

　　03 Artistic challenges confronting Wu Guanzhong and his solutions to them

　　Existing data shows that, despite the artistic challenges confronting Wu Guanzhong derived from his pursuit of “nationalization of oil painting” there is a growing gap between them. The inherent reason is that an excellent artist necessarily bases his thinking on the concrete artistic medium in the process of his artistic creation if he wants to forge works with his individual artistic style in accordance with the aesthetic features of a specific medium. Furthermore, with a view to pursuit of ambitious artistic objectives, Wu Guanzhong not only attaches increasing importance to the unique properties and expressive capabilities of brush, ink, paper and water but also progressively alters his approaches to painting from life and artistic creation. For example, traces of watercolour and oil painting can be palpably found in the water-ink paintings he created in the initial stage of his water-ink creation beginning from 1974 like Chongqing, the Riverside City, With a Postscript and A Mountain Village in a Beijing Suburb, among others. According to critic Tao Yongbai the unique properties of water-ink are not given free play in these paintings due to the predominance of light over color in them and their being based on the framework of painting from life or realistic painting, which can also find expression in his A Ferry Place in West Hunan created in 1979 and The Great Buddha of Le Montains composed in 1979, among others. [15] Comparatively speaking, his later works, especially those created since the 1980s, attach more importance to the functions of brush and ink while colors play an increasingly minor role in his artistic creation, which shows the artistic challenge he has been trying to find a solution to for more than thirty years, namely how to reconstruct nature through brush ink formula with modern design features, or in other words, how to illustrate theory of western formal beauty by virtue of a brush ink structure with Chinese characteristics. Under the guidance of this train of artistic thought, Wu Guanzhong, comparable to an engine with great potentiality, forges out a substantial number of world-stunning contemporary water-ink paintings with oriental aesthetic style and international artistic features alike.

　　From my perspective, Wu Guanzhong has found the following three primary solutions, among others, to his artistic challenges. Furthermore, in his specific creative practice, he more often than not gives free play to blended solutions. I separate them apart and elaborate on them respectively just for the purpose of convenience, which I think readers can understand.

　　1. Artistic expression of formal beauty elements extracted from nature

　　If we say the water-ink paintings in the Song Dynasty give a tourist’s expression to mountain and water and those after the Yuan Dynasty give academic reflection to mountain and water, then Wu Guanzhong’s water-ink paintings should be rightly considered as giving expression to mountain and water with modern structure. Given that evaluation of artistic effects is totally based on an artist’s ability to discover elements of abstract visual beauty in artistic targets to be expressed and his capability of handling them, when confronting concrete artistic targets in nature, be it mountains, water, trees or houses, Wu Guanzhong first of all puts aside their general properties like social features and literary features, among others, and regards them as structures consisting purely of abstract elements like dots, lines, facets, colors, shapes and rhythms and what not. He will then present them by virtue of brush ink forms complying with nature to excite corresponding emotional and aesthetic experience in an audience. Wu Guanzhong tends to highlight a primary and predominant taste in his various works. For example, he attaches importance to extraction of the special structural beauty intrinsic in white walls, black tiles as well as doors and windows when depicting the area south of the Yangtze River (cf. A Water Village Passage, Houses of the South, A Big Manor and so on); When depicting mountains, rivers and trees, he lays stress on the transformation of the structure of artistic targets into their brush ink structure predominantly through overlapping lines and facets (cf. the Hua Moutains at Sunset, Peach Trees and Willows in Spring Breezes and so on); He primarily taps into an artistic approach that features the predominant use of dots to depict wild grasses and flowers in the light of inspiration from nature (cf. The Crabapple Flowers and A Nursery, etc.). Furthermore, he sometimes produces paintings with mixed taste through blended employment of facets of various levels, exceptionally rhythmical lines and palpating ink and chromatic dots (cf. The Yellow River, A Fishing Harbor and Springs and Autumns of the Motherland, among others). Some of his paintings even go as far as semi-abstraction in terms of approaches to their creation (cf. Wild Vines With Flowers Like Pearls, A Free Movement and Misic of Construction, etc.). In a nutshell, Wu Guanzhong persistently subjects artistic targets to the needs of concrete expression of them at the time of his artistic creation and never satisfies himself with mechanical painting from life and the reproduction of existing approaches to artistic creation. It is inaccurate for some critics to compare Wu Guanzhong to American abstractionist master Pollock in that the latter brings forth visual forms exhibiting pure abstractness through the structure of dots, lines and facets while the dots, lines and facets in the former’s paintings, fresh in artistic style and rich in Chinese taste, never break away from objective targets in nature. Hence, Wu Guanzhong can never be labeled as a formalist in an absolute sense. As a matter of fact, he persistently bases his expression of specific artistic conceptions, emotions and spirits on objective and concrete artistic targets. For example, the artistic conception expressive of the persistence of newborn life is depicted and stressed in Spring Bamboo Shoots in a vivid way through shoots breaking the ground and a large patch of bamboos. Considering Zhu Jinluan has conducted splendid elaboration in this respect in her thesis From Disintegration to Integration - Wu Guanzhong’s Tree-themed Paintings, I will not give detailed illustration of that here. [16] Despite concrete images are more or less instrumental in eliciting aesthetic conceptions and humanistic significance from Wu Guanzhong’s paintings, they more often than not function according to the merits of formal elements inherent in fine art like dots, lines and facets, among others. Furthermore, the formal elements in his paintings boast aesthetic and symbolic implications independent from the concrete images and themes in his paintings, which is obviously distinctive from pursuit of artistic conceptions through traditional approaches of poetic or literary language. In other words, artistic conceptions are expressed through the visual elements of Wu Guanzhong’s paintings rather than “anything else in his paintings”. Therefore, aesthetic implications expressed in his paintings are purely visual, available only for being seen rather than being read.

　　2. Creation of artistic formula expressive of formal beauty theory

　　In the process of development for millennia, a complete system of stable and strict formulae has been fostered for Chinese traditional mountain-water painting. As a matter of fact, the system not only succeeds in its matching with specific values and tastes but lays great stress on the wholeness of scenic objects and rules for combination as well. Anyone familiar with traditional water-ink paintings knows the latter is closely related with pursuit of specific poetic conceptions. In the recent century, despite that some artists refer to western realistic formula in their artistic creation and conduct more or less adjustment of traditional formula for mountain-water painting, they still fall prey to the “wholeness” emphasizing artistic accuracy, richness and refinedness, which hampers their works from departing from traditional methods of water-ink paintings.

　　Obviously not willing to fall prey to the value orientation and artistic tastes already prescribed in traditional water-ink painting, Wu Guanzhong conducts daring reformation of the artistic formula of traditional water-ink painting almost from the very beginning of his engagement of water-ink creation with a view to establishing a new water-ink layout adequately expressive of modern structural beauty. Distinct from all excellent artists’ tendency to reconstruct existing traditional artistic formula based on their specific experience, Wu Guanzhong emphasizes the search for concrete structural formula for each painting directly from nature. He argues that the themes for and structural elements of water-ink paintings exist everywhere in nature, which can be fully tapped into to facilitate creation of excellent works by artists. An artist’s task is to incessantly improve his artistic insight and flair and meanwhile enhance his capability to employ them. In this respect, his exploration of “nationalization of oil painting” undoubtedly assists him greatly. Specifically, when he spots an artistic target that greatly arouses his interest for expression, he will first of all determine the rough structure of his painting from one or more formal elements of the target and then conduct a geometrical generalization of the formal elements according to the needs of “momentum” and “quality” standing out in the painting to achieve succinct and vivid artistic effects. Given that in the aforesaid process Wu Guanzhong lays more stress on the structure, plane, decoration and succinctness of his works rather than the wholeness, refined-ness, fullness and richness of objective artistic images, he persistently resorts to various modern artistic approaches like transformation, disintegration, distortion and squeezing, among others, to alter or highlight some elements as well as prune off or add some elements, which facilitates his endowment of still contour with rhymes, rhythms and novel forms. This underlies the visual effects of his paintings comparable to those of music. In Spring Snow on Mount Ba (1983), the dark side of the mountain is presented in heavy ink patches, the sky and part of the mountainside are depicted in gray ink of various tints while the framework of the painting consists of mountain ridges sketched out through succinct lines, which, combined with moss dots, foster an exceptionally rhythmical melody in the painting. This kind of artistic approach is also employed in many of his other works such as A World of Ice and Snow that will not be listed here due to limitations of space of this article.

　　3. Establishment of an all-new system of expression through brush and ink

　　Brush and ink play a paramount role in the formula of expression in Chinese traditional water-ink painting. Artist Huang Binhong points out in his Tenets of Approaches to Painting: “The five tenets of approaches to brush are: firstly, flat; secondly, reserved; thirdly, round; fourthly, overlapping and lastly, changeable and the seven tenets of approaches to ink are: firstly, thick ink; secondly, thin ink; thirdly, cleavage of ink; fourthly, amassment of ink; fifthly, splashing of ink; sixthly, focus of ink and lastly condensation of ink.” [17] Being subjective to the “Five Tenets of Approaches to Brush” and “Seven Tenets of Approaches to Ink”, many artists in the recent century who cherish aspirations for reformation of traditional approaches to water-ink painting shrink back when they truly touch the core of the tenets. Xu Beihong can be taken as an example of an artist who refers to some western realistic artistic approaches in respect to figural shape-construction and spatial perspective but when it comes to treatment of brush and ink, does not really conduct radical revolution in the traditional approaches to them. As an artist who has conducted profound research on traditional art, Wu Guanzhong surely clearly knows the value of traditional water-ink paintings but at the same time he argues that brush and ink, as artistic approaches to water-ink painting always change with different values, aesthetic needs and social milieu. In his words, “Brush and ink can be compared to minions who are absolutely subject to their master, namely, expression of the artists’ thoughts and emotions. They forever change with the development of the artists’ thoughts and emotions, irrespective of their specific forms. In the process of artistic development, the approaches to brush and ink may change with time but stress should be laid on whether the overall form of artistic works and their implications give real reflection of the new era.” [18] From these words, we can understand why Wu Guanzhong eventually chooses to break away from traditional brush and ink formula. Since he wants to reconstruct water-ink painting by virtue of western formal structure theory, then he must forge out a corresponding artistic system for brush and ink presentation, which reminds us of artistic master Cezanne’s pursuit of his artistic objectives justifiably not through ancient approaches to oil painting.

　　In terms of specific artistic expression, Wu Guanzhong comes up with corresponding brush and ink approaches in accordance with different artistic themes and experience but from an overall perspective. He gives priority to employment of fluid, dynamic and tip-exposing lines to express artistic targets, which, despite obviously imbued with calligraphic implications, has already gone far away from the tradition of “same source for calligraphy and painting”. Wu Guanzhong stops at no artistic approach to foster special aesthetic effects in his paintings: sometimes lines are squeezed out from funnels into his paintings, ending up as thin as gossamer and crisscrossing, winding, flying and floating in a carefree way (cf. Autumn onto the Wall, Entanglement and so on); sometimes the facets in his paintings are elicited through broad brush, poised, steady and pregnant with implications (cf. Color Homesteads and Enbracing, etc.); sometimes dots are sprinkled out into his paintings randomly through brush or other painting instruments, alternately sparse and dense and giving appropriate expression to an artistic target on the one hand but refraining from predominating over other formal elements on the other (cf. Windows of the East and A Nursery, etc.); Wu Guanzhong also establishes his unique approach to the use of brush and ink: he sometimes purposely highlights the aesthetic tastes of transparency and stoutness intrinsic in light ink and heavy ink respectively (cf. Birch Woods and A Long Windless Day, etc.) and sometimes the aesthetic tastes of moistness and scorching thirstiness inherent in wet ink and dry ink respectively are highlighted in his paintings (cf. The Ink Rhyme and Weaving, etc.), both of which are based totally on the needs of artistic expression. It is therefore not appropriate to criticize him by the yardstick of traditional brush and ink or attempt to incorporate his approaches to brush and ink into traditional brush ink formula. Only from the perspective of specific social backgrounds and the values he upholds in his artistic exploration can we comment accurately and appropriately.

　　04 Wu Guanzhong’s recent artistic development

　　The period from 1997 to 2006 witnessed the climax of Wu Guanzhong’s artistic creation. Despite that his works created in this period still adhere to pursuit of formal beauty, they, compared with those created in the past and especially those created in the 1970s, lay more stress on expression of artistic conceptions, which substantially changes his emphasis on aesthetics in his paintings. Furthermore, an increasing number of his works created in this period are dedicated to the expression of his introspection of life. In terms of artistic expression, his works in this period, are not only more subjective but are also purer in visual effects, step into a higher and purer spiritual world and increasingly free themselves from the stints of painting from life. Personally, I think these artistic features can find more adequate expression in his works created in 2005. The time Wu Guanzhong spent on artistic creation was substantially reduced in 2004 due to his poor health. Fortunately, he returned to artistic creation in 2005 with his physical recuperation. Given that on-site painting from life is increasingly unavailable to him due to senility, he more often than not resorts to his past quick sketches, works or memories to conduct artistic re-creation. In Wu Guanzhong’s own words, he is like an old cow chewing out new tastes from its cud. He affectionately wrote in a Preface: “My health is slightly better this year, so I think about chewing the cud again. Despite that the tastes chewed out from the cud are bitter they are closer to its true taste. Through summary and introspection of my artistic career, I fostered an increasingly profound understanding of art and life.” [19] In Wutong Trees into Autumn, he uses the withered yellow leaves of the phoenix tree to imply a human’s mid-life; in Fish, the fishes swimming freely in water reflects the old artist’s heartfelt eulogy to exuberant life; while in Evening Scent, Wu Guanzhong resorts to flowers with a still emanating and lingering fragrance to indicate that “he is still brimming with artistic aspirations despite old age”. It should be pointed out that during this period he also created some calligraphic works that are distinct from those of other calligraphers in that he lays more stress on artistic innovation than copying ancient calligraphic works or those by calligraphic masters. He writes in a short article: “we are currently inundated by calligraphic works that plagiarize ancient calligraphic works or works by noted calligraphers. Some calligraphers are too wayward in their calligraphic creation to consider the audience’s capacity to appreciate them. Art brought forth in this way can never last for a long time.” He also points out: “Given that my poor health last year prevented me from creating paintings, I dabbled at the structure, rhyme and rhythm of calligraphy. I created calligraphic works of simplified Chinese with a view to facilitating the audience’s easy understanding of them. Rather than create my calligraphic works based on Li Bai and Du Fu’s poems, I prefer to express my own artistic conceptions in them and meanwhile explore the structure and formal beauty in calligraphy.” [20] According to some calligraphers, Wu Guanzhong’s calligraphic works can be defined as painter’s calligraphy because he more often than not handles the Chinese characters in them as elements in an integrated space and focuses on expression of structural effects and artistic conception in these works, which I think may bring forth some inspiration for the calligraphic circle. Wu Guanzhong held “Exhibition of Wu Guanzhong’s New Works Created in 2005” in the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) in early 2006, in which more than 60 of his new artistic works including 20-odd calligraphic works were exhibited. As Feng Yuan, former curator of NAMOC, points out in his preface to the exhibition, “Like the works created by many world-class artistic masters in their late life, Wu Guanzhong’s paintings and calligraphies created in his late life are the summary of his life. This batch of new works composed in 2005 will undoubtedly end up as a new milestone for his artistic creation in the future.” [21]

　　05 Postscript

　　Despite that Wu Guanzhong has exerted a substantial impact on the development and evolution of Chinese water-ink painting in a unique way, not all artists and scholars can really understand his artistic accomplishments, which can find primary expression in the divided opinions on his approaches to brush ink expression. The reason underlying this is that some artists persistently treat traditional approaches to water-ink expression in a still and ossified way. Wu Guanzhong argues: “Brush and ink are originally approaches to artistic creation but the Chinese fine arts circle has gradually formed a habit of evaluating artistic works according to their approaches to brush and ink alone, which is unjustifiable in that the yardstick for brush and ink changes with time and different historical stages have different standards for brush and ink. The approaches to brush and ink in the Tang Dynasty are distinctive from those in the Song Dynasty. It is hard to say which is better. That is why I persistently argue approaches to brush and ink shall change with time to comply with the specific social milieu and aesthetic tastes in each historical period. Furthermore, we should establish new approaches to brush and ink and tap into other artistic media to facilitate artistic creation.” [22] Given that Wu Guanzhong has diverged substantially from traditional standards for water-ink painting in respects of artistic significance of image, standards of style and expressive technique, then I think all discussions, studies and comments concerning him should center on following three points:

　　Firstly, we should judge from the perspective of art history whether the artistic issues Wu Guanzhong put forward retain certain linkages with traditional artistic issues and have received wide attention from contemporary and modern water-ink artists and theorists and whether he has achieved historical breakthroughs in these issues.

　　Secondly, we should judge from the perspective of current cultural development whether the artistic issues he ushered in are targeted at and contributive to artistic development.

　　Lastly, we should judge from the perspective of his works whether the artistic approaches he employs in his works have a necessary logical relationship and maintain coherence with the artistic issues he heralded.

　　I’m fully convinced that provided Wu Guanzhong provides positive and effective responses to the foregoing three points, we will give adequate affirmation of his artistic exploration, which certainly to a substantial extent depends on our profound understanding of the history of fine art, the genre of water-ink painting and current cultural developments. Without the necessary background knowledge, it is hard for us to compare Wu Guanzhong’s artistic achievements with those of his predecessors and contemporaries to give his works a correct evaluation, which, I think, probably underlies the extreme views some artists and critics hold against him.

　　[1] On Wu Guanzhong, Selected Essays on Wu Guanzhong’s Study, Guangxi Fine Arts Publishing House, 1999 Edition

　　[2] Shui Tianzhong, Wu Guanzhong in Modern Chinese Art History, On Wu Guanzhong, Selected Essays on Wu Guanzhong’s Study, Guangxi Fine Arts Publishing House, 1999 Edition

　　[3] Wu Guanzhong, Little Learning and Thought, Searching East and West, Sichuan People’s Publishing House, 1999 Edition

　　[4] Gao Meiqing, Searching East and West, Holding the Middle Way, a Riot of Color -Paintings by Wu Guanzhong, Plum Blossoms Gallery, Hong Kong, 1989 Edition

　　[5] Wu Guanzhong, On Abstract Beauty, Fine Arts, Vol. 11, 1980

　　[6] Beijing Held Oil Painting Academic Seminar, Fine Arts, Vol. 3, 1981

　　[7] Li Zhujin, the Artistic Development and Theoretical Foundation of Wu Guanzhong, Wu Guanzhong - A Contemporary Chinese Artist, 1989 Edition

　　[8] Shui Tianzhong, Wu Guanzhong and His Wash Drawings, Rebellious Inheritance - Wu Guanzhong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1995 Edition

　　[9] Wu Guanzhong, Self Account, Wu Guanzhong’s Album in Art, Guangxi Fine Arts Publishing House, 1997 Edition

　　[10] Gombrich, E.H., Features of Chinese Arts, Foreign Scholars’ Essays on Chinese Painting, Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, 1986 Edition

　　[11] Jiang Zhou, Probe into the Bottom Line of Chinese Painting, Wenyi Daily, May 11, 2000

　　[12] Zhang Ding, Where From? Where To? Wu Guanzhong’s Album in Art, Hebei Fine Arts Publishing House, 1986 Edition

　　[13] Hariu Ichiro, Career of Wu Guanzhong and Significance of His Artistic Creation, Searching East and West to Open New Sea Route - Paintings of Wu Guanzhong, Geijutsu Shibunsha of Japan, 1992 Edition

　　[14] Popper, Karl R., the Myth of Framework, Self-Liberation through Knowledge, China Academy of Art Publishing House, 1996 Edition

　　[15] Tao Yongbai, Decades Painting Career Opened A Generation of New Earth and Space, About Wu Guanzhong, Selected Essays on Wu Guanzhong’s Research and Study, Guangxi Fine Arts Publishing House, 1999 Edition

　　[16] Zhu Jinluan, From Disintegration to Integration - Wu Guanzhong’s Tree-themed Paintings, Rebellious Inheritance - Wu Guanzhong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1995 Edition

　　[17] Huang Binhong, Tenets of Approaches to Painting, Chinese Painting Monthly, 1934 Edition

　　[18] Wu Guanzhong, Brush and Ink Equals Zero, published by Hong Kong Ming Post Monthly, Vol. 3, 1992, China Culture Daily reprinted in 1997

　　[19] Wu Guanzhong, Author’s Preface, Wu Guanzhong (Paintings Annals 2005), Guangxi Fine Arts Publishing House, 2006 Edition

　　[20] Wu Guanzhong, Field and Garden of Chinese Characters, Wu Guanzhong (Paintings Annals 2005), Guangxi Fine Arts Publishing House, 2006 Edition

　　[21] Feng Yuan, Preface on Exhibition of Wu Guanzhong’s New Art Works, The National Art Museum of China, First Edition, 2006

　　[22] Han Xiaohui, Why I said “Brush and Ink Equals Zero”- Wu Guanzhong Interview, Guangming Daily, April 7, 1999