THE WEIGHTY FORM of an ancient Chinese bronze vessel decked out in French-inspired cloisonne. A pair of tiny jade figures from the Yuan dynasty (1279 to 1368) masquerading as foreign tribute bearers from the Tang dynasty (618 to 907). A contemporary sculpture of a man in a Mao suit simulating the classical pose of a Greek discus thrower.
These are just some of more than 200 objects in Art and Imitation in China, an exhibition opening on Saturday at the Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery. Organised by the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong (OCS) and curated by Anthony Lin Hua Tien, the show examines imitation art from the Shang dynasty (1600BC-1100BC) to the present day.
Lin says the term 'imitation' has several shades of meaning - 'from emulation, in the noblest sense, to venal deception'. To demonstrate this he has selected from the private collections of OCS members and institutional contributors a range of bronzes, jade, lacquer, ceramics, glass, textiles, ink-and-brush and oil paintings, and works of art in wood, bamboo, cloisonne and enamels.
OCS president Malcolm Barnett came up with the theme - although he says the name 'Oriental Ceramic Society' has become a misnomer because members are interested in a wide range of Asian art and cultural issues.
A collector of jade figures since the 1970s, Barnett became fascinated by the way the stone seemed to encompass two parallel approaches - tending either to be carved as naturalistic forms or as imitations of archaic objects. In 1995, he privately published a catalogue of his collection focusing on this phenomenon, titled Archaism and Naturalism in Chinese Jades.
Assuming the presidency of the OCS in 2004, Barnett sought to create an exhibition that would showcase the rich and varying collections of the society's members, from antiquities to avant-garde Chinese paintings. And it then struck him that, from archaism to modern appropriation, the concept of imitation seemed to run like an undercurrent through them all.
Barnett called on Lin, former chairman of Christie's Asia, to act as curator. For Lin, the exhibition and its theme presented an irresistible opportunity and a new challenge, marking his debut as curator of a public exhibition. 'The OCS was very brave to invite a neophyte to undertake such a prodigious task,' says Lin, who resigned from Christie's early last year. He says the exhibition is 'an ambitious odyssey', and he adopted a western art historical approach to explore the many political, aesthetic and economic reasons behind the artistic movements encompassed by the theme.