The Wu Guanzhong donation exhibition

On 10 Apr and 12 Apr 2009, I visited the Singapore Art Museum to view the exhibition titled An Unbroken Line: The Wu Guanzhong Donation Collection. This exhibition showcases Wu Guanzhong's donation of 113 works to the Singapore Art Museum in 2008.

I had quite a bit of time on 12 Apr 2009, so not only did I spent close to an hour watching the two-parts documentary on Wu Guanzhong as an artist, I went for the guided tour. I was particularly attracted to Wu Guanzhong's ink paintings and his abstract works.

To be honest, I know very little about Wu Guanzhong and his art. As such, the purposes of my visits to the exhibition, An Unbroken Line: The Wu Guanzhong Donation Collection, was to get myself acquainted with the art of this master.

Particularly interesting to me was Wu Guanzhong's approach to art which basically could be summarised into the following statement in Chinese: 风筝不断线

I have found a rather long-winded quotation in English that gives a clue to his approach to art from a source:

Art is like a kite. You have to pull the string hard in order to stretch it to its limit, but you don't want to pull it so hard that you break the thread, because the thread connects you to the land and its peoples. (Wu Guan-Zhong)

In essence, what I could make out of the quotation is that Wu Guanzhong's art is rooted in and connected with the community. From the documentary that I had watched while I was at the exhibition, I learnt that 风筝不断线 could also mean that as an artist, Wu Guanzhong's art is linked and connected with he himself: his emotions, his philosophy towards life, his dreams, his vision etc.

The exhibition will be held from 9 April to 16 August 2009 at the Singapore Art Museum. It is worth a visit.