Flowers

Known as a great master of Chinese painting, Wu Guanzhong loved the tenacious vitality of wildflowers. He began creating works on the theme of wild chrysanthemums as early as the 1970s, during the period of vernacular realism. He returned to this theme in 1992, the height of his artistic career, as his exploration of abstract art progressed. Using colorful and heavy oil paint, he reinterpreted the aesthetic ideal of achieving the “resemblance of non-resemblance” from classical ink painting and painted pure color blocks to express the form of the flowers. The lush stems are relaxed, and the background and flowerpot are hidden. The picture appears detached from the physical world yet bursts with the vigorous tension of life in abstraction.