Wu Guanzhong’s personal information is as follows:
Wu Guanzhong (August 29, 1919 - June 25, 2010), a native of Yixing, Jiangsu Province, a member of the Communist Party of China, a modern and contemporary Chinese painter , oil painter, art educator. Wu Guanzhong graduated from Wuxi Normal University in 1934 and was admitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Industrial School Affiliated to Zhejiang University. In 1936, he was admitted to the preparatory course of the National Hangzhou Art College and studied painting under the guidance of Li Chaoshi, Fang Qianmin, Wang Ziyun and others. In 1938, He entered the undergraduate program from the preparatory course of the National Hangzhou Art College and studied oil painting under Chang Shuhong and Guan Liang.
In 1942, he graduated from the National Hangzhou Art College and served as an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture of the National Chongqing University, teaching sketching and watercolor. In his spare time, he attended literature and history courses and French classes at Central University. In December, his work "Still Life" was exhibited at the Third National Art Exhibition held in Chongqing.
In 1972, he created the oil paintings "Melon and Vine", "Sorghum and Cotton", "Landlord's House", "Mountain Flowers", "Sparrow", "Wild Chrysanthemum", "Pond", "Xibaipo Mountain Village", "Guilin Mountain Village", "Lijiang New Area" Huang", "Qianling Mountain", "Morning Mist on the Yangtze River", "Waterfall", etc.; In May 1990, he went to Singapore to participate in the "Wu Guanzhong Watercolor and Pastel Painting Exhibition"; in May 1991, the "Wu Guanzhong Teachers and Students Exhibition" was held at the Chinese History Museum; 2010 He passed away in Beijing on June 25, 2016 at the age of 91.
Wu Guanzhong’s influence on the history of Chinese painting:
In the history of Chinese painting, Wu Guanzhong opened up a path that transcended traditional formulas and integrated Chinese and Western art. He does not regard himself as the successor of literati painting, but in terms of deep artistic concepts, he is connected with the literati who created the tradition of literati painting; he does not worship traditional brush and ink formulas, but he is one of the contemporary ink painters who can use the diverse expressiveness of ink language. One, with an unscrupulous and unconstrained mentality, he painted works that have the spirit of Chinese art rather than traditional forms.
He believes that only through continuous development and change can we talk about preserving tradition. To equate pen and ink with tradition is to "preserve cultural relics" rather than preserve tradition. He did not abandon the spirit of traditional pen and ink. In addition to traditional brush and ink forms such as chamfering, he has made new expansions in the expressive power of lines and points. He has created a new rhythm of ink painting and expanded the aesthetic taste of modern audiences.
The core of this new rhythm is the movement of life. With his diverse practice, he showed a new possibility to those who came after him - it was possible to create paintings with a full Chinese flavor without deliberately imitating the ancients or following the historical masters.