Wu Guanzhong: Beauty Beyond Form

This inaugural exhibition celebrates the opening of the Wu Guanzhong Gallery at National Gallery Singapore. Spanning over 50 years of  the artist’s career, this show features both oil and ink works, many of which will be on display for the first time in Singapore. Wu (1919 – 2010) was a major advocate and forerunner of synthesising Chinese art and Western modernism. This show highlights his proficiency in both Chinese and Western art traditions, and his distinctive contribution to the discourse of modern Chinese painting. “To indigenise oil painting and to modernise Chinese painting,” he said, “are two sides of the same face.”

The Wu Guanzhong Gallery is named in honour of a significant gift of works by Wu to Singapore. This collection is the largest holding of his works in a public collection, and is one of the most valuable art donations ever presented to a museum in Singapore.