In his later years, Wu Dayu wrote a line in the poem Untitled – “I have yet another dream, light that flies and color that rhymes.” It was to express the lifetime dream Wu Dayu held towards abstract art, as well, as a mirror to his inner spirit. Wu Dayu believes the basis of his paintings are a combination of Dynamic Expressionism (shi xiang), light and color, and rhythmic tone. He interprets light the same way as he does for color, and uses light and rhythmic motion as important elements in expressing the realm of his internal, spiritual world. Wu Dayu has created more than 150 oil paintings in his later years, and due to political circumstances at the time, he had to paint on miniature cut-out canvases, it was still very daring. He fuses Eastern imageries and Western abstract expressionism into one, and applies calligraphic brushstrokes to convey oriental aesthetics.

Wu Dayu is recognized as a pioneer in modernist abstract painting, who also contributed significantly to the artistic and creative development of Chinese oil painting. Wu Dayu admires naturalness in art and opposes any embellishment. Art historian Shao Dazhen describes in The Man Who Bears the Cross of Art – Commemorating Wu Dayu: “He is deeply immersed in the relationship between colors, in the expressive language between impressionism and abstract expressionism, and in how to harmonize his subjective feeling with the objective beauty and project it accurately into his art. From the perspective of a purely artistic exploration, Wu Dayu is avant-garde in exploring the form and language of oil painting. How to exercise a greater artistic appeal for oil painting, how to apply the methods used for lines in traditional Chinese art – especially the Chinese freehand concepts and techniques – into oil painting, are matters that Wu Dayu has always followed with great interest.

(Edited by Lijie Wang & Miao Zijin)