Taihu Wu Zuoren

"I was worried when I was on my way all my life. I ended up with stars and rainy hair. After counting the journey home, I still haven't left Suzhou." One of the three poems "Sleepless at Night" written by Yang Wanli, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, is a poem that Wu Zuoren often recites and writes many times in his later years. Suzhou is Wu Zuoren's hometown. This poem has touched Wu Laolao's deep yearning for his hometown.

2018 is the 110th anniversary of the birth of Wu Zuoren, a great master of modern Chinese art and art educator. A few days ago, "This body still hasn't left Suzhou - Wu Zuoren and Suzhou Research Exhibition (the first time)" was opened in Suzhou Wu Zuoren Art Museum. Through more than 80 calligraphy and painting works, letters, literature materials, physical objects, etc., Wu Zuoren's indissoluble bond with his hometown was combed.

Wu Zuoren was born in Suzhou in 1908. In 1927, he studied in the Fine Arts Department of Shanghai Art University. Later, he followed Tian Han to study in the Nanguo Academy of Arts. From this, he met Xu Beihong and studied sketch. Xu Beihong has a green eye for Wu Zuoren and shows great concern for his studies. In 1930, Wu Zuoren studied in Europe. In 1935, he returned home after completing his studies. From then on until his later years, he mainly engaged in art creation and art education.

Since leaving Suzhou after graduating from middle school, Wu Zuoren has only returned to Suzhou three times in his life, respectively in 1957, 1962 and 1973. Although he always stayed for a short time and had a lot of business and entertainment, he still took the time to do a lot of sketches of the scenery of his hometown. These works include pencil sketches, traditional Chinese paintings and oil paintings, with rich themes, including flowers, fresh fruits, trees and stones, as well as Suzhou gardens and Taihu Lake scenery.

It can be seen from the documents and letters in the exhibition that although Wu Zuoren did not return home much time, he always cared about and supported Suzhou's literary and artistic cause. They not only have close contact with the cadres of Suzhou literature and art units and old, middle-aged and young artists, inscribing, writing or painting for important activities in their hometown, but also often write letters or transfer friends to understand and greet the work and life conditions of Suzhou local old artists such as Zhang Xinjia. Wu Zuoren is full of love for his hometown's after-school students, not only giving professional advice, but also giving them as much help as possible in their studies and life. In his later years, Wu Zuoren donated paintings to build a museum, and located the Wu Zuoren Art Museum in Suzhou, which could have been built in Beijing.

In the early summer of 1962, Wu Zuoren wrote on his wife Xiao Shufang's traditional Chinese painting loquat: "It's a blessing to eat this fruit when you are a Suzhou person." The paper was full of pride and happiness as a Suzhou person.

Ding Jianzhong, deputy curator of the Wu Zuoren Art Museum, said that there are three highlights of this exhibition: first, a dozen letters of Wu Zuoren are exhibited for the first time, from which we can learn his profound calligraphy skills; Second, more than 30 paintings representing Suzhou's local style and features were exhibited for the first time; In addition, there are some sketches by Wu Zuoren, which completely restored his claim that "sketching should grasp the characteristics of the object with a general pen".

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