Auction of Wu Guanzhong's works reaps over $2m

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): 1996 seems to be the year of art auctions in Indonesia, and last Monday, a little publicized auction of paintings by world renowned Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong, organized by the Bimantara Foundation, quietly fetched over US$2 million.

The event opened on a painting of the River Seine, (1989), with bidding starting slowly, and auction house Sotheby's spruiker Quek Chin Yeow enticing the audience to participate.

The first painting, selling at $45,000, was a little over the estimate. The second was a small oil, painted on board, depicting Zhuozheng Garden. With a probable value of $40,000, the painting fetched $60,000, indicating the spirit of the charity sale was rising. By the time the third piece was auctioned, a colorful montage of parrots, the reserve price doubled, reaching a staggering $100,000.

The fifth painting on sale, A pair of swallows, is predominantly filled with whites and light shades of gray. It depicts a white pavilion by a pond, with a tree in the center of the frame. The tree, and the pavilion openings, are subtly reflected in the pond, the darkest part of the artwork. Estimated at $100,000, interest was intense regarding this elegant painting, and the hammer price multiplied by more than a factor of five, reaching the surprising figure of $520,000.

Now, the auction spirit had escalated. The next painting, Pine Forrest, a medium sized colored ink on paper with a reserve of $49,000, sold for $185,000.

With the sale eventually beginning to cool, Memories of Sizhuan, reserved at $45,000, sold for just higher than the estimate.

The eighth piece, Three Beauties, depicting three nudes, again upped the ante, selling for $65,000, almost twice the estimate, and the stage was set for the sale of the largest piece, Lion Grove Garden. The colored ink on paper was sold at an incredible $600,000, three times the reserve, and fetched the highest price of the auction.

The tenth piece is an Indonesian subject, usually favored by Indonesian collectors. Named Indonesian Imagery, it depicts two women near the beach, and sold for 25 percent over its reserve at $58,000.

High Tide and Sailboats were then relinquished for $160,000 and $95,000 respectively, approximately twice their standing estimates of $90,000 and $40,000.

Indonesian residence, an artwork of a typical Balinese bungalow, only sold for $100,000 though, a mere $5,000 above its estimate, and the second-last painting, an oil on canvas titled Red Tree, sold exactly on the reserved estimate.

Toward the end of the auction, perhaps with funds depleted, the throng anxiously awaited the final piece, an obese blonde woman with the name of Source. "She is definitely not slim by supermodel standards," said auctioneer Quek Chin Yeow. She is very Titian, very Rubenesque and considerably Wu Guanzhong," he waxed. The painting ultimately sold for $62,000, to a bidder by telephone from the United States.

Certainly, the success of the sale was based on the artist's fame and reputation. "He is the only Chinese painter that has been honored with a retrospective at the British Museum," boasted Quek Chin Yeow. This exhibition, entitled Wu Guanzhong -- the Twentieth Century China Artist, was held in England in 1992.

For historical context, Wu Guanzhong was born in China in 1919. He entered the National Arts Academy in Hangzhou in 1936, and studied for six years, majoring in Western painting. His main interest was in the impressionist paintings of Cezanne and Van Gogh, but he admired the Chinese paintings of Shi Tao Bada Shanren and Xu Gu, and also studied Chinese painting under Pan Tianshou.

On graduation from the academy in 1942, he became a tutor in the architecture department of the National Central University of Chongqing. Simultaneously, he attended courses on the literature and history of China and France.

In 1946, he received a scholarship in Paris, beginning the following year, and he studied in the atelier of Souverbie at the Ecole National Superieure des Beaux-Arts.

On returning to China in 1950, he taught at the Central Academy of Arts in Beijing, and was criticized and persecuted due to his opinions, and approaches to art. Later, in 1953, he was transferred to the architecture department at Qinghua University. From 1964 until his recent retirement, he has taught at the Beijing Fine Arts College.

The outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 saw Wu Guanzhong banned from painting, writing and teaching, because his Western-oriented education and views clashed with those of Eastern communism. It was only in 1972 he was again allowed to paint, but initially his activities were restricted to certain times on Sundays.

In 1978 the Central Institute of Fine Arts and Crafts organized a show of his paintings, the first solo exhibition of his work. Since, his work has been displayed in many touring exhibitions, indicating his paintings are gradually being accepted and appreciated.

In the 1980s, his work was exhibited in Japan, France, the United States, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Publication of his work appeared during this period as well. His concept of blending "Chinese substance" and "Western form" has earned him recognition as a major influence on the development of modern Chinese painting.

The painting Ruins of Gaochang was auctioned in 1989 for HK$ 1.87 million by Sotheby's, the highest price ever paid for a work by a living Chinese artist. The auction gathered total revenue of $2,235 million, and two paintings were sold at a price higher than the 1989 record-breaking piece.

Accomplishing another record price is not a certainty, but the sale undoubtedly was an unprecedented success. Proceeds of the auction will go to the Bimantara Foundation.