Andre Lhote, Wu Guan Zhong and an Outbreak of Chinese Art in London

London seems agog at all things Chinese arty at the moment – more traditional stuff right now thanks to the V&A’s exhibition Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700-1900 (I’ll get along when the initial crowds die down I think). However, do check the very cool swirling dragons on the exhibitions site!! As well as the V&A Super Show we’ve got the release of Phaidon’s new Chinese Art Book – 5,000 years in 300 works.

So, as is customary here at China Rhyming, a far more obscure anecdote on Chinese art. This one concerns the French painter André Lhote. Lhote was born in 1885 in Bordeaux and held his first solo exhibition in 1910 in Paris. Lhote’s style was initially influenced by Gauguin and Cezanne, then later transitioned to Cubism. He was a major influence on one major Chinese artist as a young man who studied with him, Wu Guan Zhong. Wu, in his memoirs (he sadly died in 2010), clearly and fondly remembers details of the time he spent at Lhote’s Studio and was impressed by Lhote’s use of colour paper in his teaching and painting. Wu wrote in his memoir “Lhote was a magician of colour. Learning the use of colour was a very important part of studying at his studio.  It wasn’t just the use of colour; it was giving colour structure.  I also learned composition, especially landscape composition.”

So first two examples of Lhote’s work and then two from Wu Guan Zhong…..