THE Hong Kong Museum of Art announced last week that the family of the master of Chinese painting Wu Guanzhong has made another round of donations of Wu’s invaluable works to the museum for its permanent collection.

The donated works include the painting “A Household at the Foot of Mountain,” which was created when Wu was sent to the countryside to do hard labor in the 1970s and was painted on cardboard placed on top of a dung basket, as well as sketches for several masterpieces such as “A Riverside Village of Ningbo,” “The Original Draft of Chinese Cypresses” and “A River Alley of Suzhou.”

In addition to paintings and sketches, the donation also includes items that chronicle Wu’s journey of artistic pursuit, including his work seals, documents he used and a certificate received in France as well as a ribboned gilt medallion awarded by the French government.

According to the museum, it has now become the biggest and most diverse collection of works by Wu in the world, making up a huge collection of over 450 items, comprising oil paintings, ink paintings, sketches, watercolors, gouache paintings, acrylic paintings and a porcelain painting made by the great artist over more than half a century.

Wu, born in 1919, was a native of Yixing, Jiangsu Province, East China. In 1947, Wu went to France to study Western painting, and returned to China in 1950.

Wu passed away at the age of 91 June 25, 2010, a few hours after his son donated five paintings on his behalf to the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

(Xinhua)