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Lot Essay
In 1917, Guan, at the age of seventeen, started his study of Western oil painting under the instruction of Nakamura Fusetsu and Fujishima Takeji at the Pacific Arts School in Tokyo. Since the majority of Japanese artists came under the influence of European modernism, Guan was fortunate to be exposed to all the great works by Impressionist, Fauvist masters which were excluded in the mainstream trend in China back at the turn of the twentieth century. Due to the indulgence of art, Guan not only improved his skill on painting, but also extended to a wide range of investigation of music and opera. He was an advocate of free creation, with high ability of independent thinking and fearless spirit of anti-trend, thoroughly understanding the both the common and different principles of Chinese and Western Art, he was keenly aware that Western were paying more attention to concision language and pure image, in fact, such a trend concided with ancient tradition of Chinese literati painting and the cozy spirit of opera. So he kept thinking that how to be eclectic, extracting the advantages from Western and Chinese tradition, and creating a unique artistic expression with national characters.
In 1957, accompanied by Li Keran, Fu Baoshi and other artists, Guan went to West Germany, during that period, he created a series of landscape oil painting. In Weimar, Germany (Lot 1167), aiming to express the poetic feel in the painting, he abandoned realism and adopted the freehand approach of Chinese painting style, so that the inner feeling of the painter can be shown, the audience was moved and leading to resonance. The palette of this painting was simple but bold, Guan used the stroke which was smooth and full of attraction of ink painting style, depicting the German countryside scenery, scattered houses in the foothills, roofs in red and orange color shining against the hill which is cover with the lawn and the trees in dark green, in addition to the blue conical roof on the mountain top, it showed the vitality of the use of colors. Guan made good use of colors, not only respecting the objective law of nature, but also emphasized his subjective choice and combination. In this painting, Guan continued the use of Chinese style brushstrokes, to "form a plane with single lines, and to find art in the plane", intenting to perform the charm of traditional ink painting. The work was full of tension, dense with careful choices of the levels, ripples and shades of each line, which, as a result, is rough but delicate, as well as bold but restrained. Together with a combination of image and palette, it created a personal vocabulary of emotion and a form of painting which is rich of Chinese flavor. The shapes, colors and lines in Guan's painting were so spectacular and imaginative, the composition seemed to be handly, in fact, it was the result of his exquisite investigation, and that was what he called "less is more".
The Shipyard (Lot 1166) is another masterpiece by Guan, where he proves to be more than a landscape painter, with a stronger emphasis on the subject matter and form. The painting depicts a company of shipbuilders sweating over the making of an enormous ship as a product of modernity. Guan simplifies the human figures in sketchy but nevertheless succinct outline, reducing a lot of tedious details, to let the power of form speak for itself. He rejects redundancy in brushstrokes, which in his own words, 'what used to be painted with ten brushstrokes, can actually be painted with five.' Guan has made selective 'intake' of elements of traditional Chinese art in evolution, and channeling them through the media of Western art to create a Chinese-style oil painting. In The Shipyard, Guan takes the traditional way of exploiting lines to the extreme. In order to capture the structural spirit of the ship factory, the lines of the ship body, the mechanics gear, and the lifting arm of the crane, are so rough, so heavy, and so condense, that create strong visual and sensual effect. Guan vents his passion for the New China under construction in each powerful line charged with energy. Adding an interestingly light contrast to the heaviness of the composition are the straight line suspending from the top of the crane, and the very thin wire across mid-air. The dull color of the ship factory contrasts with the clear blue sky, and the red at its bottom, again conveys the painter's admiration for the shipbuilders in labor, and his youthful aspiration for modern China blooming in a new era.
In 1957, accompanied by Li Keran, Fu Baoshi and other artists, Guan went to West Germany, during that period, he created a series of landscape oil painting. In Weimar, Germany (Lot 1167), aiming to express the poetic feel in the painting, he abandoned realism and adopted the freehand approach of Chinese painting style, so that the inner feeling of the painter can be shown, the audience was moved and leading to resonance. The palette of this painting was simple but bold, Guan used the stroke which was smooth and full of attraction of ink painting style, depicting the German countryside scenery, scattered houses in the foothills, roofs in red and orange color shining against the hill which is cover with the lawn and the trees in dark green, in addition to the blue conical roof on the mountain top, it showed the vitality of the use of colors. Guan made good use of colors, not only respecting the objective law of nature, but also emphasized his subjective choice and combination. In this painting, Guan continued the use of Chinese style brushstrokes, to "form a plane with single lines, and to find art in the plane", intenting to perform the charm of traditional ink painting. The work was full of tension, dense with careful choices of the levels, ripples and shades of each line, which, as a result, is rough but delicate, as well as bold but restrained. Together with a combination of image and palette, it created a personal vocabulary of emotion and a form of painting which is rich of Chinese flavor. The shapes, colors and lines in Guan's painting were so spectacular and imaginative, the composition seemed to be handly, in fact, it was the result of his exquisite investigation, and that was what he called "less is more".
The Shipyard (Lot 1166) is another masterpiece by Guan, where he proves to be more than a landscape painter, with a stronger emphasis on the subject matter and form. The painting depicts a company of shipbuilders sweating over the making of an enormous ship as a product of modernity. Guan simplifies the human figures in sketchy but nevertheless succinct outline, reducing a lot of tedious details, to let the power of form speak for itself. He rejects redundancy in brushstrokes, which in his own words, 'what used to be painted with ten brushstrokes, can actually be painted with five.' Guan has made selective 'intake' of elements of traditional Chinese art in evolution, and channeling them through the media of Western art to create a Chinese-style oil painting. In The Shipyard, Guan takes the traditional way of exploiting lines to the extreme. In order to capture the structural spirit of the ship factory, the lines of the ship body, the mechanics gear, and the lifting arm of the crane, are so rough, so heavy, and so condense, that create strong visual and sensual effect. Guan vents his passion for the New China under construction in each powerful line charged with energy. Adding an interestingly light contrast to the heaviness of the composition are the straight line suspending from the top of the crane, and the very thin wire across mid-air. The dull color of the ship factory contrasts with the clear blue sky, and the red at its bottom, again conveys the painter's admiration for the shipbuilders in labor, and his youthful aspiration for modern China blooming in a new era.