LAKE ABODE - 香港藝術館藏品 HKMoA

This pattern is a collaboration between Sparkle Collection and HK Museum of Art (HKMoA), adapted from world-revered Chinese contemporary artist Wu Guanzhong’s oil on canvas “Abode In The Colorful Lake” which depicts the artist’s impression of a scenery from his hometown where white-walled houses with black roof tiles are surrounded by greenery and water.
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Wu Guanzhong first started painting with oil and then moved on to ink, searching for a way to fuse Eastern and Western art. His works bring together the aesthetics of traditional Chinese ink and modern Western art, pioneering the unique "Wu studio style".
Wu had an enduring connection with Hong Kong. He visited Hong Kong on many occasions, such as hosting art exhibitions and attending academic seminars and talks by invitation. He made acquaintance with many members of the art circles. He also did sketches on the streets in Hong Kong, and the city is the subject of many of his paintings. Wu highly rated Hong Kong's cultural environment, to him, Hong Kong was a confluence where he could "see both the East and the West at the same time". It is a quality that can also be found in his art creations.
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The painting “Abode In The Colorful Lake” depicts the artist’s impression of a scenery from his hometown in Jiangnan province — white-walled houses with black roof tiles surrounded by greenery and water. Wu Guanzhong discovered the abstract beauty of lines, dots and planes through the jiangnan dwellings, bridges and rivers. He used this figurative subject matter to express the abstract concept of colour, more specifically the interesting relationship between colours and white — very much at odds with one another and yet interdependent. He wrote, “the colours of the lake and the white of the houses, they nestle lovingly against each other.” Without the white of the houses, the colours of the lake cannot stand out; without the colours of the lake, the white of the houses will be less distinct.

白牆黑瓦,綠水縈繞 ── 此作描繪了吳冠中印象中的故鄉,江南水鄉的風光。他從故鄉的江南民居、小橋流水等發現點、線、面的抽象之美,以具像的題材表達抽象的色彩概念、彩與白既對立又互相依存的關係。他寫道:「湖之多彩,屋之白淨,相依相愛。」沒有屋之白淨,襯托不出湖之多彩;若非湖之多彩,表現不到屋之白淨。

吳冠中(1919 – 2010)是學貫中西的藝術大師,早年留學巴黎,1950年回國後致力於「國畫現代化」和「油畫民族化」的探索。他從油畫入手,轉向水墨後,一直中西求索,作品糅合了中國傳統水墨與西方現代繪畫的美學觀點和內涵。他一早表示他最優秀的作品是要留給國家和人民大眾的,生前多次向國內外的公營博物館捐贈作品。歷年來他及家人對香港藝術館捐贈不斷,至今累積達450多項。

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Painting: “Abode In The Colorful Lake” by Wu Guanzhong (彩湖居)(吳冠中)
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*香港藝術館藏品This collection is collaborated by the Hong Kong Museum of Art and SPARKLE by KAREN CHAN.