Wu Guanzhong liked bridges. Settlements with bridges over water alleys were common in his native Jiangnan region, and these bridges frequently appear in his paintings. He loved bridges for their...
Wu Guanzhong liked bridges. Settlements with bridges over water alleys were common in his native Jiangnan region, and these bridges frequently appear in his paintings. He loved bridges for their lyrical quality, and more importantly for their formal beauty. He found great linear beauty in round bridge holes and domed back arches. The bridges cross over water and interact with planes formed by houses, forming myriads of changing scenes in different settings. Bridges are also the media between lines and planes. They are important elements for communication formal transformation of lines and planes. For this reason, Wu Guanzhong found the symbolic meaning of bridges even more compelling.
He once said, "I want to build a bridge between the East and the West, commons and experts, and figurative and abstract." An artist with skills in both Chinese and Western painting, he used traditional painting as the material to build this bridge to explore the localisation of oil painting and modernisation of Chinese ink painting, and created many special artworks.