LOT 60
GU WENDA
B. China, 1955
Untitled from the series Mythos of Lost Dynasties
Signed, titled, and dated in Chinese with two of the artist’s chopmarks
Ink on paper
96 x 59 cm
Private Collection, Singapore
RM 25,000 – RM 45,000
Gu Wenda, a contemporary artist from China was born in 1955 in Shanghai. He lives and works in Brooklyn Heights, New York City with his wife, interior designer Kathryn Scott, while also maintaining studios in Shanghai and Xi’an, China. His works predominantly revolve around the traditional Chinese calligraphy, poetry and has been said to work with human hair. Gu is among the most well-known and extensively exhibited and published contemporary Chinese artists in any medium. He has extended the boundaries of landscape painting, subverted meaning in Chinese calligraphy and raised provocative questions about what it means to be a Chinese artist in the modern world.
Gu Wenda studied and later taught at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (Now China Academy of Art). He rejected the landscape painting style of his well-respected advisor Lu Yanshao and instead pursued semi-abstract ink painting. His work are in major museums and private collections throughout the world and he has participated in numerous international solo and group exhibitions and biennales across the world including Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei, New York, London, Paris, Berlin and Toronto.
Crowned as the master of ink painting, Gu plays around with Chinese calligraphy characters and words, removing or combining strokes which contribute to a landscape of compositional elements — one that is uniquely his hallmark. This painting, an Untitled work from the series Mythos of Lost Dynasties is evident of such composition, challenging the authority of Chinese tradition.