Chinese school, following models of WU GUANZHONG; 20th century.

Chinese school, following models of WU GUANZHONG; 20th century.
"City."
Watercolor and ink on blue cardboard.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 32 x 45 cm.
In the oriental culture the painting has a great link with the calligraphy, the materials like the brush and the ink are fused in both disciplines. Thus, the material becomes a highly appreciated artistic motif, both for its form and for the contents it is capable of transmitting.
Aesthetically the work is close to the precepts of the multidisciplinary artist, Wu Guanzhong, who worked with painting, ink and watercolor drawing, engraving, calotype and even made some enameled porcelain pieces. Possibly the most recognized contemporary Chinese artist, Wu focused his work on the Chinese landscape, natural and urban, capturing its architecture, its plants and animals, its characters and its natural landscapes, in a style inspired by post-impressionism that drinks, at the same time, from traditional Chinese ink painting. He was also an outstanding writer and critic of contemporary Chinese art. Born in Yixing (Jiangsu), he studied engineering at the Zhejiang Industrial School, and in 1936 moved to the Hangzhou National Academy of Arts in the same city to study both Chinese and Western painting with masters Pan Tianshou and Lin Fengmian. He graduated in 1942, and five years later he moved to Paris thanks to a scholarship from the Chinese government, which allowed him to study at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in the city. Upon his return to China, he took up a teaching post at the Central Academy of Art in Beijing, and later at Tsinghua University and the Normal School of Fine Arts in the same city, where he taught Western art. His exhibitions at the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan in New York and the Hong Kong Museum of Art are particularly noteworthy. Wu Guanzhong is currently mainly represented at the Singapore Art Museum, to which the artist himself made a significant donation of his work, although he is also present in other prominent museums around the world.