“Wu Guanzhong’s paintings of Guilin landscapes can be grouped into works from the 1970s and 1990s. The earlier paintings rely more on sketches from life and are executed with complex compositions and detailed depictions of scenery. The latter ones focus on the charm and atmosphere, with simplified compositions and refined colour palettes. The artist himself once wrote: ‘I was set on capturing its full appearance, so I constructed my painting by adopting various visual impressions from all angles possible. After two intense days of structuring and painting the work, I reviewed what I had done but was disappointed. That was in the mid-1970s. In the 1990s… I saw clearly that the painting was too noisy, which spoiled its overall feeling. So I took up my brushes and palette knives, adjusting the colours and using a subtractive approach to manage the composition. To my surprise, I finally realised the Guilin Landscape that I had been searching for 20 years.’ (Words beyond Paintings, Wu Guanzhong, Beijing, People’s Literature Publishing House, 1999, p. 31) According to The Complete Works of Wu Guanzhong, only four Guilin oils by the artist date from the 1990s, making them extremely rare. This Guilin, from 1991, is one of the most sophisticated works in the series, featuring the most varied brushwork and the greatest depth in its spatial presentation.”

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