Page 114 - Christies May 2016

*85 $15,000-21,000 The present lot (lot 85) is a rare example of Gu’s early work, showing his deep
GU WENDA (B. 1955) €13,000-19,000 fascination of traditional Chinese painting through his distinguished brush
work. These elements were transformed in his later works, as he borrowed
LANDSCAPE the calligraphic nature of Chinese characters but dismantled, restructured
and decomposed them to produce undecipherable motifs. By casting of the
Ink on paper. With one seal of the artist. functional meaning inherent in traditional Chinese characters, Gu rediscovers
29Ω x 32Ω in. (75 x 82.5 cm.) the aesthetic value of the abstract forms.

£10,000-15,000 谷文達 風景與組畫 水墨紙本 鏡框

PROVENANCE: 鈐印: 「谷文達印」
出版: 金通達編《中國當代國畫家辭典》，2001年出
From the C. T. Howell Collection. 版，第360頁

LITERATURE: 來源: C. T. Howel珍藏

Index of Chinese Contemporary Chinese Painting Artist, Jin Tongda, 2001, p.
360.

Gu Wenda was born in Shanghai in 1955. He graduated with a master’s
degree in Chinese Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou
studying under Lu Yanshao. Although he was trained in the Chinese ink
wash tradition, Gu Wenda decided to move to the United States after the
New Wave movement in 1985. His departure from China allowed the artist to
synthesise his past experience in China with the Western imagination in his
independent visual language.

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