‘Lion Woods’ by Wu Guanzhong fetches higher auction price

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A color ink painting by celebrated Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong was sold for over 143 million yuan (20.8 million U.S. dollars) at the China Guardian Spring Auctions in Beijing on Sunday night.

The price of the painting “Lion Woods” was over four million U.S. dollars higher than at a previous auction eight years ago.

The subject of the painting is the largest rockery in Suzhou.

Photo of "Lion Woods," the largest rockery in Suzhou. /VCG Photo

The nearly three-meter long art piece, which was made in 1988, is considered a masterpiece of abstract painting. Wu had successfully incorporated the use of lines, planes and dots in his work.

“It's just from the ‘Lion Woods' that Mr Wu started to slip the leash of concrete subjects and entered a new phase of his artistic journey,” said Dai Wei, general manager of the Modern and Contemporary Painting and Calligraphy Department of China Guardian.

Color ink painting “Lion Woods” by Wu Guanzhong. /Photo via China News Service, provided by China Guardian.

Wu is widely recognized as a founder of modern Chinese painting. Born and living in the regions south of the Yangtze River, many of his paintings reveal the beauty of the regions.

“Through painting landscapes, I have grown to love my motherland even more and wish to be forever intoxicated in her embrace,” Wu once told journalists.

Celebrated Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong in a 2008 picture. /VCG Photo

Wu passed away in 2010, aged 91. A number of exhibitions of his works have been held in China this year, the 100th anniversary of his birth.

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