The light greens of the spring waters, the blues of the distant mountain and the organic browns of the riverbank are all perfectly understated and work to harmonize with one another. No single hue overpowers another. These particularly eye-catching houses with white walls and black tiles are scattered throughout the tranquil waterways south of the Yangtze River.
ILLUSTRATED IN THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WU GUANZHONG, VOL. I, HUNAN FINE ARTS PUBLISHING HOUSE, SEPTEMBER 2012, P. 172
〈水上人家〉, 鋼筆紙本, 一九八○年作, 24 X 33 CM
刊於〈吳冠中全集〉第一卷（湖南美術出版社，二○一二年九月），頁172
In the spring of 1980, Wu Guanzhong took his students from the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts on a painting trip to Suzhou. He painted various notable Suzhou gardens and ancient towns, and executed a large number of sketches during this trip. Based on one of the sketches, he created the present work.
Changing a rectangle composition to a squarish one, the artist arranged the village houses in a way that accentuates their variety in heights. The black forms of the windows and roofs constitute a stark contrast with the white walls, together they delineate the spatial depth of the village. Purely white, the walls functions as a picture plane, providing a spotless background to showcase the vibrancy of flourishing foliage of Spring trees which centers the work. The image’s compact and self-contained layering is truly a testament to the compositional genius of the artist.