Spring Breeze 2001

Wu Guanzhong made this painting with ink and colour on paper, and right away you can see how he’s not trying to hide the process. There's such a sense of immediacy, a kind of energetic searching that I really respond to. Look how the thick, juicy blacks of the lotus leaves contrast with the airy lightness of the dragonfly hovering above. The stark verticals create a rhythmic pulse, punctuated by the seed pod and those scattered flecks of green that pop like little surprises. It’s a deceptively simple composition, but notice how the seemingly casual strokes build up to create a really dynamic tension between the solid forms and the open space. It puts me in mind of Franz Kline, but with this whole other sensibility that comes out of Chinese landscape painting traditions.