Page 178 - 亚洲二十世纪及当代艺术

“As I look back on my career as a painter, it was in the 1990s that I
once again started painting the human form, returning to the dreams
of youth, but it is impossible to ever step back into the rushing torrent
of the past. Those waters had long since subsided, I was already old,
and painted what I saw and thought about, but who wants to see an
old man dance?”
{{Wu Guanzhong
In 1989, Wu Guanzhong held a solo exhibition titled Wu Guanzhong - Kaleidoscope,
at the renowned Plum Blossom Gallery in Hong Kong. The splendor of the opening
event was unprecedented, all the works sold in 90 minutes and local press
reported that a glass door at the venue was broken by excited collectors. Two
days later, Wu’s The Ruins of Gaochang sold at auction in Hong Kong for HKD$1.87
million, the highest price ever for work by a living Chinese artist at that time. Three
years later he became the first living Chinese artist to hold a solo exhibition at the
British Museum, in an unprecedented event that surprised the world. As such, by
the 1990s Wu Guanzhong’s artistic achievements placed him at the very pinnacle
of the art profession. The current autumn auction solemnly showcases Ah Fu, a
Foreigner, a rare figure-themed work by the artist painted on a trip to Indonesia in ᖯ౶߅ᔝၾϲ‘dذ੹೥̺d193 x 175 cmd1962 ϋЪd๿ɻԎ
1994. It also represents a very rare instance where Wu painted a foreign woman ߚਔਿږึᔛ
on a beach in Bali as his model and is the perfect example of a female form from do not accept the beauty of ridiculed things,
his later creative period. but we still appreciate Ni Ah Fu from Wuxi. A
A Rare Figure-Themed Painting few years ago, I encountered a surprisingly
“I remember very clearly him on a beach in Bali, he stood out among fulsome young English woman on a beach
the crowd of people all wearing bathing costumes. It was also there in Indonesia, who was the perfect model
that he encountered the archetype for ‘Ah Fu, a Foreigner’ and I took for the voluminous beauty pursued by the
a photo of them together. He said to me in an excited tone ‘This is a plastic arts. After returning to Beijing, I
classic example of the voluminous beauty sought out by Maillol and reproduced this scene in an oil painting and
Picasso.” whenever guests with no affinity for Western
art visited my home and saw the piece, they
{{Cai Simin (friend of Wu Guanzhong)
found it exciting and curious, so I explained
After 1990, Wu Guanzhong, whose had already entered a period of artistic to them that this is a foreign Ah Fu and they
freedom, refocused on the “human form,” a painting motif he had not touched understood in their hearts what I meant,
on for more than 40 years and completed 22 paintings of the female form before and so that is what I chose to call the work.
his death in 2010. Of these, 18 paintings completed from 1990-1991 focused on A key feature of modern Western art is to
skinny young girls in their teens. As such, the “fulsome” figure of the woman in express the capricious nature of feelings and
Ah Fu, a Foreigner painted in 1994 marks a clear shift. Moreover, after Ah Fu, Wu extreme forms. The plump women carved by
went on to paint A Spring (1995), River Bank (2002) and Pink Whirlwind (2008), four Maillol are much fatter than Yang Guifei and
works that also depict larger women and should perhaps be considered a series. in fact transcended what is usually meant
The latter of these is part of the National Art Museum of China collection, an by ‘fat,’ but this is the pursuit of fulsomeness
indication of the artist’s satisfaction with the piece and the esteem with which the and tension of style, or rather voluminous
series is viewed by the art world. beauty.” Ah Fu, a Foreigner is the perfect
example of voluminous beauty, human spirit
If we look back at the artistic career of Wu Guanzhong, the human body was and distinctive appearance.
something he learned when he started to study painting, but thereafter political
factors ensured he did not paint the human form again. However, while in Wu Guanzhong believed “voluminous
Indonesia Wu unexpectedly encountered his ideal model. Moreover, although beauty” had existed for many years in both
this Western woman was not a teenager and had a fulsome figure, her pretty Chinese and Western art: “Westerners have
short hair and gorgeous swimming costume highlighted her confidence in public been familiar with voluminous beauty since
and general poise to such an extent that Wu immediately very much wanted to the 19th century, with Maillol, Picasso and
paint her. In this way, he sought to break with the traditional Eastern aesthetic of my teacher Jean Souverbie all lovers of such
“people being more emaciated than chrysanthemums,” by conveying a different beauty. In fact, even putting aside the stone
type of beauty defined by size and self-confidence. sculptures at the Huo Qubing tomb or Zhou
Connecting East and West, Crafting Voluminous Beauty Fang (730 a.d – 800 a.d.), Chinese folk art
has long since produced many outstanding
The woman in the painting sits in the absolute centre of the work and takes up works imbued with voluminous beauty and
most of the space, which both enhances the size of the figure and echoes the one classic example is Ni Ah Fu from Wuxi.”
title of the piece Ah Fu, a Foreigner. Wu once commented: “Most Chinese people If we look at Ni Ah Fu, then since the Ming

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