Following the relation of artist and nature, my research shows how Wuming artists, despite their awkwardness, reinvented brushwork by breaking away from the strictures of socialist realist drawing, and taking inspiration from both traditional Chinese and European modern painting. 

This study first examines the context of its emergence: how landscape painting and shanshui painting, which preceded the Wuming group, reflect the extent to which Marxism and Maoism reshaped conceptions of humanity and nature. It then explores the conditions in which amateur artists worked during the Cultural Revolution. The study also compares the Wuming group’s existential choices to shanshui painting traditions, particularly as illustrated in Tao Yuanming’s (365–427) poem The Peach Blossom Spring. It shows how Wuming painters, who withdrew into painting in gardens and parks during this chaotic period, created landscapes that were detached from the world—out of time and space, and perfectly harmonious—resembling the utopian realm depicted in Tao’s poem. Finally, the thesis demonstrates how their reinvention of brushwork expresses a personal and idealized inner landscape, in dialogue with the art and politics of their time.

MA Kelu (马可鲁), Park, 1975, oil on painting, 18 cm x 25 cm

Selected Works of the Wuming Group

ZHAO Wenliang (赵文量), Berth (停泊) , 1967, oil on paper, 18.4 cm × 12.1 cm

ZHANG Wei (张伟), Red pillars (红柱子), 1976, oil on paper, 34 cm × 26 cm

YANG, Yushu (杨雨澍), Blue Lotus (兰荷), 1975, oil on paper, 16.7 cm × 26 cm

LI Shan (李姗), Untitled (无题), oil on paper, 1974-1978 19 cm x 25 cm

DU Xia (杜霞), Grassland on the river bank-Zizhuyuan Park (河边草地-紫竹院), oil on paper, 25. 8 cm × 18.6 cm

TIAN Shuying(田淑英), Flower house (花房), 1977 19.5cm x 26.7 cm

ZHENG Zigang (郑子刚), Household in a farm (农场人家), 1974, 21.3 cm × 28 cm

ZHENG Ziyan (郑子燕), Wind Swinging the lotus Pond (风摇荷塘), oil on paper, 18.4 cm × 12.1 cm

LIU Shi (刘是), Lotus Pond in summer  (夏荷), 1976-1977, oil on paperboard, 15.7 cm × 19.1 cm

WANG Aihe (王爱和), Sunrice at sea (海上日出), 1975, oil on painting, 19.2 x 26.7 cm

WEI Hai (韦海), Lotus Pond in the Sun in the Zizhuyuan Park, 1976, oil on paper, 30 cm × 39.2 cm