ten years of hong kong painting

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Fleeing China in the late 1940s and early 1950s, numerous traditional Chinese painters decided to settle in Hong Kong and to pass their skills and knowledge on to their students. Among the early settlers are Chao Shaoan, Yang Shen-sum —- who are painters of the Lingnan School— and Fang Zhaoling. They are artists who regard themselves primarily as Chinese painters. To them, the traditional values must be retained, and the use of ink and brush must be mastered before all else. Theirs is a tradition handed down through the ages by artists who have laboriously copied the old masters' work and could regurgitate the various styles of past dynasties. Very often, a painter would have to go through a long period of apprenticeship before being allowed to establish his or her identifiable look. Although this process of copying may seem unnecessary in an age of satellite and television, it, nevertheless, has not deterred China's great painters from attempting the quintessential statements. Indeed, Chinese painting does not have to be westernised in order for it to remain vital and original. And Fang Zhaoling illustrates that point by keeping an inquisitive mind and by adopting modern day subject matter in her painting. King Chia-lun, Cheng Ming and Poon Chun-wah belong to the second generation of painters who continue the traditional line of Chinese painting in Hong Kong. With the arrival of Lui Shou-kwan (1919-1975) in Hong Kong in 1948, an important page in the evolution of local painting was turned. Lui, with his Chan (Zen) paintings which fused an Abstract Expressionist approach with the spirit of Chinese philosophic thinking, was one of the crucial figures in the history of Hong Kong painting. The In-Tao Art Association and the One Art Group were formed in the sixties under his guidance to carry on this East/West fusion. Some group members, Wucius Wong, Irene Chou and Chui Tze-hung, who were his students, were to become active painters in the subsequent decades. Together with Liu Kuo-sung who originally came from Taiwan, they pioneered a new sensibility which has quickly become the dominant force in Hong Kong painting. Like Lui Shou-kwan, they use the Chinese medium of ink, brush and paper (Shui Mo) while mixing element of design, Surrealism and various western techniques in their art. Their preferred subject matter is still the landscape. Yet the mountains and streams, long the staple themes of Chinese painting, might be formed by spraying and splashing ink or by crinkling the paper before applying colours. Gone are the roaming wise men
in long robes and the lone boat in a stream; they are, instead, replaced by a contemporary vision of the universe. Although these painters juggle varying proportions of Chinese and western ingredients in their work, collectively they originated a unique pictorial system which is very relevant for Hong Kong. At last, here is a logical solution to the evolution of Chinese painting which is rooted in the literati tradition of the past but can be called modern at the same time. Seeing the immense possibility for experimentation, many younger painters such as Kan Tai-keung, Koo Mei, Toto Kung and Leung Kui-ting are drawn to this Shui Mo School. Many of these young painters have been taught by Wucius Wong. The western painting medium of oil or acrylic has a special allure for Chinese painters. Not only does it provide the artists with an alternative to the Chinese ink and paper, it is also a language which is easily understood by art circles in Europe, America and other parts of the world. For a Chinese painter who is not bogged down by tradition and who wants to be accepted into the international art community, this would seem the ideal medium to use. Luis Chan, Kwong Yeu-ting and Hon Chi-fun are some of the early proponents of this western school of painting. Luis Chan, at the age of 82, has just started on a new series of expressive 'splash' canvases which he calls 'Abstract Illusionistic' paintings. Kwong Yeu-ting, who obtained a Master's degree in Landscape Architecture in the U.S., has produced a body of work on the theme of Chinese garden design and architecture. And Hon Chi-fun is the Minimalist who has been fascinated by variations of the circle and their ethereal meanings. The diversity of styles adopted by the three painters, and even the specific development of Luis Chan's art from monotypes of the sixties to aquatic images and splash paintings of the eighties, tend to reflect the unsettled nature of Hong Kong western painting. Other directions that have been explored over the years include Gaylord Chan's rendering of personal symbols and primeval patterns, Yank Wong and Francis Wu's large expressive abstractions, Choi Yan-chi and Raymond Ng's Minimalist approach, Josh Hon, Wong Shun-kit, Rex Chan and Yeung Tung-lung's Neo- Expressionist handling of the human figure, Nancy Chu Woo's studies of the nude, and the Photo-realist details of Kong Kai-ming, Lam Yuk-fai and Ngan Chuen-Ii. Many of these painters received their art education abroad and have returned to Hong Kong in recent years. Although
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ten years of hong kong painting

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