The China Project

69 Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection opposite Night ambush : raking light detail of the sky showing areas of damaged paint / Photograph: Ray Fulton Ultraviolet light image of corresponding area showing the dark purple, previously restored and repainted sections / Photograph: Anne Carter left Front and verso of Gu Wenda’s Lay down your arms (Jiao qiang bu sha) 1985 before treatment, photographed in raking light / Photograph: Ray Fulton series no.10 1991 is unframed, and is painted on unprimed cotton canvas stapled to a strainer made from pieces of pine. The two layers of paint making up the background are not well adhered and have become ‘wrinkled’, with many small paint losses. It appears that a mixture of paint types might have been used. For Ah Xian, the early 1990s was a time of ‘complex and competing demands which swirl[ed] around the issue of survival’. 20 He was employed as a factory worker and house painter, and could have been tempted to use cheaper painting materials at this time. 21 However, according to Ah Xian: ‘One thing [about which] I am absolutely clear is I never used any type of house paint for painting my art paintings’. 22 Ah Xian attributes the wrinkling paint in Heavy wounds series no.10 to his addition of oil medium to an under-layer of yellow paint, and applying a grey top coat before the yellow layer had dried. Ah Xian sees only the positive in these changes, and likes the look of the wrinkled paint. We can see what is happening between the layers of paint by examining a sample from the painting in cross-section. Tiny fragments of paint from areas of damage or cracking can be embedded in resin and then polished, exposing a cross-section for examination under a microscope. Paint samples from Heavy wounds series no.10 reveal just how convoluted the yellow paint has become upon drying. Gu Wenda Recognised as a major figure in Revolutionary Realism, Gu Wenda formally trained in the art department of the military’s North China United University in the 1940s, and later at the Central Academy of Fine Arts from 1954 to 1956. 23 In the mid 1980s, he painted Night ambush with his wife, Guo Zhonglian — Gu painted the figures and Guo the landscape. This was followed by Lay down your arms (Jiao qiang bu sha) 1985 which he painted alone. Both paintings were included in an exhibition in 1985 at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the end of the Sino-Japanese War, with their subject matter reflecting these historical events. 24 The Gallery owns three of only six remaining oil paintings by Gu Wenda: his persecution during the Cultural Revolution meant that many of his paintings and sketchbooks were destroyed. 25 Night ambush required extensive restoration treatment to repair flaking paint, and was considered a priority due to the rarity of Gu’s work. Curator Claire Roberts’s interview with Guo Zhonglian in 2008 about the making of Night ambush provides insights into the painting process. Usual practice in the 1980s meant that this painting was made using materials provided by the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts. As Guo recalls, to make a large work, artists went to the materials room of the oil painting department and requested what they needed, and after being given approval, they signed a form and the materials would be handed over. 26 A wide, coarse linen ( yama bu ) was chosen for this large painting. The strainer was made from found pieces of wood, with no bevel or keys to ensure that the canvas remained tight. According to Roberts, Gu Wenda and Guo Zhonglian ‘stretched the canvas themselves. Once stretched, the canvas was primed using a ground (the brand was Lide fen) and bone glue ( gujiao ) which they mixed themselves. 27 above Detail of bottom right corner of Night ambush , showing the application of the ground on the fold over the edge, original tacks, and gold leaf applied as a frame. Night ambush paint cross- section from the sky (x200); visible light (top) and ultraviolet light (below), showing the build-up of layers / Photographs: Anne Carter