Author: WU YI 武艺

Size: 40×60cm×111

Signed and dated: Painted in 2020

Estimate: 500,000 -800,000

Final Price: RMB 500,000

signed in Chinese and dated 2020

Wu Yi has always been committed to the exploration of Chinese traditional culture and the modernization of ink painting. His works maintain the meaning of plain and naive literati painting, and at the same time surpass the tradition of academic school. He is good at endowing his works with a twinkling of wit with improvisational and perceptual creation methods and a light lifting attitude. Most of the works of martial arts in the 1990s came from real life, such as ‘Summer Group Paintings’ and ‘Dashanzi Group Paintings’. These works are often small in size and are records of daily life fragments, plain and affectionate. Since 2000, the sources of martial arts materials have become more and more abundant. He drew inspiration from Dunhuang murals, Ming and Qing Dynasty prints, sculptures and other forms of traditional culture, re examined and interpreted them from a contemporary perspective. His works contain rich information and poetic white space, scholarly prudence and literati carelessness, as well as the connotation of contemporary art and the legacy of traditional culture, The group painting Fuxing Road No. 9 (Lot 1126) in 2020 is one of the representative works.
Fuxing Road No.9 (Lot 1126) is a group of works that combines textual research and artistry. Martial arts systematically tells the history of China’s military development with 110 paintings. From the simple weapons of the stone age, the terracotta warriors of the Western Han Dynasty, the granary of the Sui Dynasty, the colored terracotta warriors of the Tang Dynasty, the cannon of the Ming Dynasty, the armor of the Qing army, the Zhiyuan ship model, to the armband of the Eighth Route Army and Renbishi’s pistol; From the battle between the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou in ancient times to the Opium War, the war of resistance against Japan, the war of liberation and the Korean War in modern times, and finally settled in the establishment of the Chinese people’s Military Museum, the artist shows the history of war evolution from the perspective of weapon development and the changes of war forms in different times, including some famous battles, such as the battle of Yaksa, the battle of crossing the river and the battle of Jincheng, And some iconic historical figures, such as Zheng Chenggong, Zuo Zongtang, Lin Zexu, Zhang Zuolin, Dong CunRui, etc.
This set of works is narrated in the form of album. It contains a huge amount of information and contains all kinds of contents. Martial arts has obtained accurate background knowledge from the study of Archaeology and military history. The ‘Children’s Group Inspection Notes’ is humorous. The artist draws a scene similar to that in the film ‘Little Soldier Zhang Ga’, which restores the old look of the times in a concise and concise way, and also triggers the viewer’s nostalgia. ‘Fuxing Road No. 9’, as a tribute to China’s military history, selects the representative moments, weapons and figures in history. In the process of creation, the martial arts did not deliberately highlight the political elements, but spoke like a story, with straightforward and vivid language full of appeal. In terms of creation, the strokes and ink of this group of paintings are simple, free and easy, full of meaning, fresh and bright colors, and unconventional. In terms of modeling, it not only imitates nature, but also does not stick to shape similarity, with comic exaggeration and childish interest in children’s simple strokes. With the concept and formal elements of modern art, Wu Yi has reformed the pattern of traditional ink painting, created a new visual schema between tradition and contemporary, not only revived the traditional culture to a certain extent, but also opened a new development direction for Contemporary Chinese painting.