Northern Landscape was a sketch made in 1979 for a mural that was to complete the work of the Beijing Capital Airport.. Wu Guanzhong composed this work in the spirit of, and in reference to, two lines in Mao Zedong’s To the Tune of Qin Yuan Chun: Snow: “Mountains meander like silver serpents, And tablelands stand like wax elephants”. The foreground is occupied by several flat-topped pines, which, along with the grand snow-clad mountains behind them make up the main view of the piece. Along the ridges of the snow-clad mountains, the winding Great Wall links the foreground and the middle ground with the background, not only knitting the various parts of the painting closely together, but also increasing the sense of movement in the piece, giving the spectator an impression that it is ‘dancing’. When the artist was composing the work, he outlined the sunny and shady sides of the mountain range through changes in the opposition of light and shade. The continuous mountain views in the distance, despite being outlined in just a few brushstrokes, have a clearly layered feel, connoting “a thousand miles in deep freeze”. It could be said that regardless of whether one looks at the Great Wall, achieved in a few simple strokes, or at the distant mountains that embrace the main peak, they embody the care and thought the artist has put into managing the composition. As Wu Guanzhong states, this sketch “is made with all my powers, so it is in fact no longer a ‘sketch’, but rather it already embodies the ultimate effect of a giant work.”

Wu Guanzhong’s managing of surface composition can be traced back to his days as a student, where he studied large-scale Chinese shanshui paintings. The composition of Northern Landscape is undoubtedly highly considered. It not only draws the eye into the main scene but with its rich layering of middle and background, it adds an aspect of movement to the surface of the piece, highlighting its magnificent boldness.

(Wang Yu, Interpreting Wu Guanzhong’s Sketch Northern Landscape, 2011[Extract])