Lion Grove Garden Analysis

One of his works called Lion Grove Garden was created in 1988. It measures 117 inches by 57 inches, which is the largest piece of all of his works. Lion Grove Garden is one of the four famous gardens in Suzhou, and numerous artists have created countless works about it. However, Wu’s work was most unique, because he used dots, lines and planes to create an image of the garden with his own visual language, which uses oil painting to express Chinese aesthetics. The unique appearance of Lion Grove Garden gave Wu Guanzhong the original inspiration for creating his abstract paintings. This piece was successfully purchased at auction for 115 million yuan in the 2011 Poly Auction, which not only reflects Wu’s art recognition, but also represents the …show more content…
Though used in different places, only red, green and yellow dots are included in the work. Some dots are big, while some are small; some are dark colored, while some are light colored. Some viewers might feel very close, while some might feel farther from the figures in the work. All of these dots make the piece very vivid and give the piece a sense of movement. The fish in the water are portrayed with a mix of dots and lines, and even though they are very abstract, viewers still can feel they are fish. This is a characteristic of the expressionist technique of modern art. That’s why Wu is considered a contemporary artist. The wide usage of lines, which make the work full of rhythm, like poetry, are the most important element. But even though the plane occupies a small proportion of the work, it cannot be ignored. Because of these planes, the work has a strong composition and appears …show more content…
The lines are very fluent and full of rhythm. Wu used many techniques from Chinese painting, as seen in the lines of the stone and the method used to draw the water. The dots in this work appear like dancing people, and most of the color in this painting is black sumi ink, which gives a sense of eastern art aesthetics. Pavilions on the rock, corridors, bamboo and a close-up of the fish in ponds give a clear image of a landscape, which is close to the traditional style of ink painting. However, the form of this work comes from western art, and Wu is clearly inspired by Jackson Pollock. Therefore, viewers can also imagine the actions of Wu’s brushstrockes when he created the work. The small bridge on the river is the main indicator of perspective in the work. But actually in eastern art, no perspective exists, so this approach comes from western art. All of these elements combine in the work to produce a new