An Unbroken Line: The Wu Guanzhong Donation Collection

Singapore Art Museum (SAM) is proud to present An Unbroken Line, a showcase of 114 works by internationally acclaimed artist, Wu Guanzhong. Valued at SGD$73.7 million, Wu Guanzhong's donation of 113 works to the Singapore Art Museum in 2008 is the highest valued donation presented to a public museum in Singapore. This exhibition will showcase the complete set of donated works representing five decades of the artist's creative oeuvre. In addition, the artist had donated an artwork to Singapore in February 1988, when he participated in the Wu Guanzhong Art Exhibition jointly organised by Singapore National Museum and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts then. The donated work was a piece Wu completed in 1981, entitled Roots.

A key significance of Wu Guanzhong’s art is the crossing and synthesising of the two art forms of ink and oil which represent art historical and aesthetic contexts of traditional Chinese and Western art. Wu started painting in ink only in 1974, when he was aged 55, but his earlier oil works were predicated on ink aesthetics as with his subsequent inks on oil foundation. A prolific writer of essays and art theory, his Formal Beauty of Painting foreshadowed a revolution in art in the immediate post-Cultural Revolution period when it was published in 1978.

To Wu, the feelings of the individual were supreme. Equally important, however, was the individual's emotional link with the community, hence his famed line, the "Unbroken Kite String", which expounds the connection between formal abstraction and everyday life, and acknowledges its source in the community. A strong advocate of developing culture and the arts, and a man who holds deep respect for intercultural values, Wu’s broad brushstroke gesture of presenting his largest donation to the Singapore Art Museum will be celebrated jointly by the art community as well as the Singapore public.

Given Wu Guanzhong’s magnanimity and deep respect for intercultural values, his broad brushstroke gesture of presenting his largest donation to Singapore is not entirely a surprise. Says the artist is his usual perspective way, “Singapore is a country I respect, it is positioned between the east and the west with regards to ethics and quality of life; it is close to China, as it is close to the west; the virtues of both sides are concentrated in you.”Jane Ittogi, chair of Singapore Art Museum aptly responded that Wu Guanzhong’s donation is a “Gift for the Future.” Wu Guanzhong’s art is a gift to humanity, from the decussation of cultures in the 20th century, to the future of the 21st and beyond.

An Unbroken Line: The Wu Guanzhong Donation Collection opens to public on 9 April and ends on 16 August 2009.

For more information, please visit www.singart.com

Top Image:

Wu Guanzhong
Pandas 大熊猫 1992 Ink and colour on paper 123 x 248 cm Gift of Wu Guanzhong

Singapore Art Museum Collection

Middle Image:

Wu Guanzhong
A Second Painting of Gaochang (The Ruins of Gaochang II) 再绘高昌 1987 Ink and colour on paper 125 x 125 cm Gift of Wu Guanzhong

Singapore Art Museum Collection

Bottom Image:

Wu Guanzhong The Wu Village 吴家庄 1993 Ink and colour on paper 68 x 137 Gift of Wu Guanzhong

Singapore Art Museum Collection

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