Nonagenarian painter Hon Chi-fun exhibits works in Central
At 91, artist Hon Chi-fun has a lifetime of experience from which to draw inspiration
Hon Chi-fun has just turned 91 and he is still busy painting. One of his recent works, a small acrylic canvas called , is leaning against the dining table in his Ho Man Tin flat, ready to be sent off to his latest solo exhibition of 24 paintings at Exchange Square.
The gradation of blue and green still invokes the same sense of quiet reflection that Hon's art is known for, but it is composed entirely of the loose, overlapping brush strokes that he has adopted in the past decade.
I have always felt very Chinese. It can only be that way for my generation
It is a world away from the precise geometry of his "circle" years, when he produced ground-breaking, minimalist silkscreen prints and acrylic paintings, which often featured perfectly round discs, as founder of the Circle Art Group.
That phase, beginning in the 1970s, marked a time when Hong Kong's home-grown modern artists were reacting to contemporary movements in the West and breaking free from the traditional forms of Chinese art.
Hon says his painting style today is less a change in artistic vision than an adaptation to an ageing body.
"The way I paint now is more relaxed, more arbitrary. My body has changed and I cannot see as well. I'll do a few strokes one day, leave it, and then add a few more strokes another day," he says.
