Wu Zuoren’s Yellow Blooms

        By LI SHUJUAN

Yellow Blooms on the Battlefield Smell Sweeter was sold for RMB 80.5 million, a record high for a piece by Wu Zuoren. China Guardian

“Man ages too easily, not Nature;

Year by year the Double Ninth returns;

On this Double Ninth,

The yellow blooms on the battlefield smell sweeter.

Each year the fall winds blow fiercely,

Unlike spring’s splendor

Yet surpassing the spring splendor

See the endless expanse of frosty sky and water.”

– Mao Zedong, October 1929

It was this poem written by the late Chinese leader that inspired Wu Zuoren’s (1908-1997) Yellow Blooms on the Battlefield Smell Sweeter, which sold at the China Guardian 2013 Spring Auction for RMB 80.5 million, a record high for Wu’s work. Wu created this oil painting in September 1977 to commemorate the iconic leader’s life on the first anniversary of his death.

This panoramic painting expresses the passion and joy present in the poem, evoking the emotions aroused in Mao by the coming of the new era almost a century ago, along with the painter’s own expectations of the future.

In the painting Wu skillfully combines Western techniques that highlight perspective and realism with Chinese composition and emotional expression, which embodies his approach to art.

Its impressionistic foreground of vibrant sunflowers and rape blossom recedes into a wide expanse of farmland, whose far edge gives way to dense forests amid which loom factory buildings and the landmark pagoda of Yan’an. Behind them a distant mountain range obscured by light mist fades into a bold sky, adding to the painting’s powerful sense of depth. The abundance of greens and yellows represents the vitality of life, conveying the hope and passion the artist holds for the future of his country.