23 Facts About Wu Guanzhong

Wu Guanzhong was a contemporary Chinese painter widely recognized as a founder of modern Chinese painting.

Wu Guanzhong is considered to be one of the greatest contemporary Chinese painters.

Wu Guanzhong's family wanted him to become a teacher, as his father had been.

Wu Guanzhong considered the adventures as a necessary journey to becoming a man and building his character.

Wu Guanzhong later found a job as a watercolor and drawing teacher in the Architecture Department of Chongqing University.

Wu Guanzhong visited all of the city's major museums within the first few days of his arrival.

Wu Guanzhong took great interest in the modern art of France, especially Post-Impressionists such as van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne.

Wu Guanzhong identified with the hardships that Gauguin felt when he left Paris for a South Pacific island in order to find his own personal ideal.

Wu Guanzhong was excited to be the first Chinese artist to return from France with knowledge and theoretical framework for French modernism.

Wu Guanzhong enjoyed the freedom of travel, which allowed him to paint or sketch wherever and whenever he wanted.

Wu Guanzhong was later appointed a Professor at the Central Institute of Arts and Crafts, Beijing in 1964.

Wu Guanzhong heard of artists being persecuted and even killed, so he burned his nude paintings since they would be severely criticized and frowned upon.

Wu Guanzhong started painting with oil and watercolor in a Western style until he returned to Beijing and saw other artists using watercolor in the traditional Chinese style.

Wu Guanzhong considered himself primarily a painter and not a theorist.

Wu Guanzhong had the approach of going out and looking at nature to find something that piqued his interest.

Wu Guanzhong had his first professional solo exhibition in 1979, and his career took off in the 1980s.

Wu Guanzhong has been the solo exhibitionist in over ten and been part of a joint exhibition in over ten others.

Early in his career Guanzhong adopted the pen name Tu, which he used to sign his work.

Wu Guanzhong had successfully incorporated the use of lines, planes, and dots in this painting.

Wu Guanzhong paid careful attention to the ups and downs, concave and convex, caverns and peaks, and sizes of the rocks.

Wu Guanzhong has had solo exhibitions in major art galleries and museums around the world, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Taipei, Korea, France, England and the USA.

Wu Guanzhong's paintings were exhibited at the British Museum in 1992; Wu was the first living Chinese artist to have an exhibition there.

Wu Guanzhong explains abstract beauty, which shows his appreciation for abstract art along with his traditional Chinese training.