Wu Guanzhong - Quotes By Wu Guanzhong

Quotes By Wu Guanzhong

“Through painting landscapes I have grown to love my motherland even more and wish to be forever intoxicated in her embrace.”

This particular quote gives us deeper insight to the deep appreciation for China and the land that Wu Guanzhong had.

“For people’s hearts to communicate, there must be genuine emotion to strike a chord. Whether the feelings and perceptions of modern Chinese can find resonance in the West depends on the emotions, if they are true or false. Intelligent viewers can discern what is real and what is false.”

Here, Wu Guanzhong explains that in order for people (such as those of the East and the West) to communicate there must be real emotions that can strike a chord with the other's audience.

“Abstract beauty is the heart of the beauty of figurative art. It is a natural thing to which we all respond. As a child loves to play with a kaleidoscope, so everyone likes pure form and color.”

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

"So often there is conflict between them, and this is my greatest sorrow....Whatever I have written is to try to help our own people to understand and to get rid of their fear and suspicion of abstraction in Western art. So I can only start talking from a point of semi-abstract art, which is easier to understand. But even when I talked this away, recently there were lots of argument and objections.”

This specific quote shows how difficult it was in China to integrate abstract Western art as a result of their fears and how this impedes Wu Guanzhong's ability to freely discuss it.

“’Image’ exists in the objective world. Not all images are beautiful. The discerning power of the artists eye lies in its ability to recognize the beauty in images, to grasp the elements that constitute this beauty, and to bring this beauty out in his expression, thus creating a sense of sympathy in the audience!”

This quote explains Wu Guanzhong's belief that the audience should feel a sense of sympathy with the painting/

“In searching for all the marvelous peaks to make sketches, for thirty years during winter, summer, spring, and autumn, I carried on my back the heavy painting equipment and set foot in the river towns, mountain villages, thick forests, and snowy peaks – from the farthest corner of the Eastern Sea to the border towns of Tibet, from the ruins of ancient Greek Gaochang (in Xinjiang) to the isles of seagulls, I stayed in truck stops, courtyards of fishermen’s homes, factory buildings, and broken temples....In all of these I trained myself to develop endurance.”

We see through this quote Wu Guanzhong's struggles on his journey of becoming a landscape painter and how this resulted in him becoming stronger.

All of the above quotes are from the same source