I don't think about the earthquake destroying my studio,
There is an incomparably brilliant light hidden within;
But knowing this unquestionable fact,
This is the day when the universe will never be destroyed and withered.
My lord, please take your seat.
Consider the integrity that stands before you;
Allow me to soak up all the beauty of this world,
Guiding me to start from here.
This is freedom, this is beauty, this is dignity and nobility;
Describe all kinds of charm for you.
From the past to the present,
It is the grace of God and me working together.

——Wu Dayu

Known as "Flag of Hangzhou Art College”, “Extraordinary Color Painter”, “pioneer of pioneers"Wu Dayu is well-deserved"The master among masters”. As the head of the Western Painting Department, he led the Hangzhou National Art Institute for ten years, cultivating famous rising stars such as Zao Wou-ki, Chu Teh-chun, and Wu Guanzhong. More through "Momentum, light, color, rhythm"Three major comprehensive aesthetic forms laid the foundation for Chinese abstract painting and theory. With their prestige, talent and creation, they shine through the history of modern Chinese art and still resonate today and shine through the ages!

Coinciding with the 120th anniversary of the birth of Wu Dayu, a generation of art masters, China Guardian (Hong Kong) "Asian 20th Century and Contemporary Art" specially launches "Shape and rhyme contend for brilliance"Special topic, honored to presentWu Dayu's first live auction, "Untitled 10", a rare large-scale autobiographical painting completed in the 1980s. by"Fei Guang Che Cai Yun"Formal beauty,"It stains the mind, and it comes and goes with just one finger"The artistic realm reflects the artist's outstanding aesthetic achievements throughout his life.
 

Lot 46
Wu Dayu
Untitled 10
Oil on canvas | Circa 1980 | 76×53 cm.
Wu Dayu
Untitled 10
Oil on canvas | Painted approximately in 1980

publishing
2001, "Wu Dayu Art Exhibition: The Pioneering Master of Chinese Oil Painting", National Museum of History, Taipei, page 87
2003, "Wu Dayu, Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute", Shanghai Education Press, Shanghai, page 147
2006, "Wu Dayu", Future Gallery Art Co., Ltd., Taipei, page 139
2013, "Wu Dayu - a collection of works of a century-old representative painter of the Shanghai School", Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Publishing House, Shanghai, page 107
2015, "Collection of Wu Dayu's Works", People's Fine Arts Publishing House, Beijing, page 57
2020, "Flying Feathers across the Sky - Collection of Works of Wu Dayu", The Commercial Press, Beijing, pp. 90, 92-93

exhibition
March 9 to April 8, 2001, "Wu Dayu Painting Exhibition", National Museum of History, Taipei
March 20 to May 8, 2021, "Chinese Abstraction Pioneer - Wu Dayu Solo Exhibition", Geng Gallery, Taipei

source
Taipei Future Gallery
Currently purchased directly from the above sources by important private collectors in Asia
Attached: Certificate of work issued by Taipei Future Gallery

Valuation ESTIMATE:
HKD 12,000,000 – 18,000,000

A square inch can accommodate thousands of realms, and it will illuminate my heart through the ages.

Wu Dayu only had 159 oil paintings during his lifetime, and most of them were small in size (about 53 x 38 cm). Due to war in his early years and the inspection of modern paintings during the Cultural Revolution, Wu Dayu could only paint and hide them. A small-scale work in a drawer. After all, he only left12 pieces over size 20 (76x53 cm)The above works,"Untitled 10", which is currently offered for auction, is one of them, extremely rare. The work has been included in all the artist's published albums. It has been collected by an important private collector in Asia for more than 30 years and is now being released for the first time.

Wu Dayu only has 12 rare oil paintings of size 20 or above (76x53 cm) in existence.

A few years and decades before Wu Dayu's death, he had been squeezed out of the bustling world and hid in a small building. The stubborn teacher read, drew and thought while being poor and sick. Yao Yao is easy to break, it is better to break than to bend. The body and mind are left to their own devices, but he once said in a letter to me: "Plowing in the desert."

——Wu Guanzhong
 

As his student Wu Guanzhong said, Wu Dayu lived in a very small space in his later years, but despite poverty and illness, he still worked in the desert, and his thinking and pursuit of art never stopped. "Untitled 10" witnesses the grand and astonishing artistic time and space created by Wu Dayu, who was in his late seventies at that time, living in the small real world of the attic.

Outstanding: Rare Family Portraits and Character-themed Paintings

Breaking away from the "Beijing Yun" series that generally feature a single or double protagonist,"Untitled 10" depicts as many as four characters for the first time. In this painting, Wu Dayu used a brush stained with indigo, ink black and coffee red, relying on his unique "momentum" aesthetics, using Chinese charm, vigorous brushwork, and the expression of Western Cubism to depict a world full of emotions. There are four figures in a room with a structural sense of windows and walls: a young man in the middle, a woman with red lips, a child holding a book with a bird resting on his chest, and a naughty boy with a glance.The figures form a solid triangle, which is just like the life portrayal of Wu Dayu's family. It has become the only autobiographical family portrait oil painting among his handed down creations.

Looking back to 1928, Wu Dayu, who was in charge of the Western Painting Department of Hangzhou Art College, lived in his apartment on Yuquan Road by the West Lake. In August of that year, he fell in love and got married to Shou Yilin, who was six years younger than him from the Chinese Painting Department of the Academy of Fine Arts. In the following two years, he had a pair of children one after another, and the family of four enjoyed a happy life. However, due to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the move of the art college to the south, and the influence of the political environment, Wu Dayu resigned from his teaching position at the Hangzhou Art College in 1938, and in 1940 he moved his family to the three-story building in Shanghai where his parents-in-law, who were bankers at the time, lived. residence. As the head of the family, he was unemployed for ten years. When his son was studying at Fudan University in Shanghai, he was forced to leave because he could not pay the tuition. Despite the difficult environment, the family always supported each other and became each other's strongest backing. ,"Untitled 10" shows their spirit of unity and unity.

Left: Wu Dayu's "Untitled-7", ink on paper, 27×18cm;
Middle: "Untitled-8", watercolor on paper, 25.5×19cm;
Right: "Untitled-9", watercolor on paper, 25×19cm. Wu Dayu has depicted his family three times in the form of sketches, watercolors and similar compositions. The oil painting "Untitled 10" presented this time is the only oil painting that shows a family portrait of four people. It is extremely rare.

The dancing shadow is graceful, the leaping is the language

Strong Wu Dayu's rhyme, Chinese rhyme. Chinese rhyme swallows up Western shapes and colors, which is a distinct and unique new channel among the thousands of nationalization paths of oil painting.

——Wu Guanzhong
 

In order to show the rhythm of form, Wu Dayu extracted the essence of Western Cubism, organically combined it with the Eastern heritage, and transformed the changes in form and force into the trend of momentum, thus evolving into abstract interpretations of portraits and objects. He created it in the 1940s. Give birth to a unique "potential"aesthetics.

In "Untitled 10", through his precise use of color, brushwork and capturing of the character's personality, his expressions are revealed in just a few strokes.For example, the one in the middle has a high nose and a deep outline, which fits Wu Dayu's own resolute and deep image. The person on the right uses white color to outline his big and bright eyes, and the round arc adds a unique feminine softness, which corresponds to the gentleness and virtuousness of his wife. The book-holding and spiritual bird symbolize his erudite and wise son, while the girl at Cheng Huan's knees has no additional ink except for the eye-catching eyes, but conveys the spiritual expression of her spirited expression.

Drawing on the richness of Peking Opera facial makeup and the representation of facial features in primitive African masks, Wu Dayu here uses strong and tense brushstrokes to transform shapes layer by layer, fully utilizing the word "shixiang". The simple human face contrasts with the abstract expression of Cubism, but it loses the straightforwardness of geometry, and in the rhythm of the form, it presents a vivid and life-like mood, giving the painting a softer flavor.

Accumulation of time brings success, and controls the overall situation

In order to present the perspective relationship between the characters and space in this work, Wu Dayu carefully harmonized light and color. Black and blue are the dominant colors, which constitute the keynote of the painting. The leaping brushwork demonstrates the speed and power of Eastern brushwork. The large area of ​​brown color focuses on highlighting the figures, and starting from the figure in the center, the colors of indigo, gray blue, and green and white gradually add changes in details, thus giving the painting "Progress cautiously and accumulate time to achieve success” of profound expressiveness.

The clear blue sky outside the window and the sea of ​​fresh lemon yellow flowers, stands out from the picture and is eye-catching,Become a symbol of "hope". The viewer seems to be able to clearly feel that the work is not a single static presentation of reality, but between the color blocks and lines, it connects the memory of the former residence in Hangzhou and the real attic in the time and space of the painting. In the confrontation of light and color, it stirs up a sense of reality. The magnificent landscape of life.

Give me a helping hand in exchange for my lifelong purity and enthusiasm

The life personality of this heart through the ages

If you look closely at the work, you can see an intriguing arm stretching from outside to inside at the window on the left side of the painting.It seems to embody "the power of the outside world", bringing encouragement and blessings into the small room in the painting., echoing Wu Dayu's life circumstances in his later years: In 1978, his oil painting "Pengtuo" was exhibited at the National Art Exhibition in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in East China, and was awarded the "Honorary Award". The work was collected by the National Art Museum of China. This is of great significance. It is the first time an abstract work has been awarded in a national art exhibition since the founding of the People's Republic of China. It undoubtedly reflects the academic community's renewed recognition of Wu Dayu's status. In 1979, he was appointed vice president of Shanghai Painting Academy. In 1980, when this work was completed, his student Chu Teh-chun sent a box full of Western paints from France. The recognition from the art world, material support, spiritual enrichment, and family harmony all brought him new hope and imagination. The arm in "Untitled 10" is likeLike the messengers reporting good news in classical religious paintings, they convey inspiring messages., and that arm,It is also like his ultimate belief in art, which always guides him in adversity.

Left: Part of Wu Dayu's "Untitled 10"
Right: Young Wu Dayu

Wu Dayu left his passion for life in this painting. He regarded his family as a symbol of beauty and a strong backing. He also expressed his artistic beliefs with his unique symbolic expression. He firmly grasped the olive branch thrown to him by the name "art" and strengthened the power of symbiosis with it. from"The liberation of color and form", he finally found "The destination of heart and god”!

China Guardian Hong Kong 2023 Autumn Auction

Asian 20th Century and Contemporary Art
Auction: October 8 | 10am
Preview: October 3 - 6 | 10am - 8pm
October 7 | 10am - 6pm
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center | Exhibition Hall 5BC
 

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