Wu Guanzhong, arguably one of the most important Chinese artists of the 20th century, has given the Singapore Art Museum his largest donation to a public museum comprising 113 oil and ink works painted during the years 1957 to 2007. These works represent Wu’s oeuvre over five decades and in both the oil and ink mediums. Although Wu Guanzhong did not begin to paint in ink in an intense way until 1974 when he was 55 years old, the thinking in oil and ink started at the very beginning of his artistic career. Wu also painted in watercolour, mainly during the early phase of the 1950s and 1960s.
A key significance of Wu Guanzhong is the crossing and synthesising of the oil and ink art forms. If the story of 20th century Chinese art is a journey anchored in the intersections of oil and ink, western and traditional Chinese art, Wu Guanzhong stands right in the middle of these crossings.