Wu Guanzhong: Reminiscence of Jiangnan (1996)

Description

Wu said, “The large-scale exhibition Wu Guanzhong: A Retrospective presented by the Hong Kong Museum of Art in the spring of 2002 was really inspiring to me. Instead of simply displaying my works as they were, the Museum traced and picked up the threads of my explorations and presented the results of my technical evolution side by side so that my artistic pursuits, my successes and my failures, as well as the joys and pains I experienced along the way were made plain for all to see. For example, Twin Swallows from the 1980s was displayed alongside Former Residence of Qiu Jin and Gone Are the Swallows with the Past (also known as Reminiscence of Jiangnan), each done ten years apart. I was overwhelmed because it was like I was caught red-handed and my innermost secrets were exposed. Those abstract geometric forms and those entangled moods have all arisen from interpretations of the realistic forms. When singled out and juxtaposed, works from different periods reveal what the artist had been preoccupied with all those years…. The greatest joy to an artist is none other than being understood.”

And so, Wu placed these three ‘brainchildren’ of his, namely Twin Swallows and its sequels Former Residence of Qiu Jin and Reminiscence of Jiangnan , in the care of the Hong Kong Museum of Art.