GU WENDA (b.1955) Storm Clouds Gathering Over a Small Hut, 1993GU WENDA (b.1955)Storm Clouds Gathering Over a Small Hut, 1993Ink on paper, signed by the artist, framed. 68.5cm high x 99cm wide (27in high x 39in wide). 谷文達（1955年生） 曲徑通幽處 水墨紙本 鏡框 1993年作 Gu Wenda was a leading figure of China's 1980s 'New Wave' art movement, and later a prominent member of China's art diaspora when he moved to New York in 1987. He originally studied traditional ink painting at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts and achieved a superlative degree of technical skill which he put to devastating effect during the exciting era of China's opening-up policy. His early landscapes, such as Ink Valley and White Water (1986), illustrated in China Onward: The Estella Collection, Chinese Contemporary Art, 1966-2006, Humlebaek, 2007, p.89, show an understanding of historical masters but feature iconoclastic compositions and surreal spaces, reflecting the mentality of Chinese society and idealist art of the 1980s, when huge social changes took place. By combining different character components, Gu has invented unreadable characters to investigate the power of the written word. In most of these works, he places these powerfully symbolic pseudo-characters in vast surreal spaces. See for example, The Mythos of Lost Dynasties, C Series No.6: Cloud and Water, 1996-1997, illustrated in Chinese Ink Painting Today, New York, 2010, pp.152-153. For more details about Gu Wenda, see also W.Hung, Contemporary Chinese Art: A History, 1970s>2000s, Singapore, 2014, pp.314-315. The present lot is titled and inscribed with a line from a Tang dynasty poem by Chang Jian 常建 (708-765) which may be literally translated as 'the winding path leading to the dark and secluded place' (曲徑通幽處).The painting thus encapsulated Gu's understanding of traditional art and literature, with his innovative spirit. Gu Wenda's works are in numerous prestigious collections and museums globally, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York; The British Museum, London; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Uli Sigg Collection, Switzerland; Shanghai Art Museum; China National Art Museum, Beijing; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Compare with a related painting by Gu Wenda, which was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5 October 2015, lot 2803.