From Hiroshima to Hong Kong, artist Brian Tilbrook’s retrospective covers a lot of ground, and a switch from realism to abstract painting

Hong Kong has been home since 1965, but Brian Tilbrook was in Hiroshima soon after its nuclear bombing, an event that inspired a recent abstract painting

A retrospective exhibition intended to mark his 90th birthday includes realistic landscapes from his Hong Kong heritage series and some of his later work

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Paintings in a retrospective of the work of veteran Hong Kong artist Brian Tilbrook on display at the University Museum and Art Gallery, the University of Hong Kong. Photo: University Museum and Art Gallery

Published: 1:15pm, 8 Oct 2022

Artist Brian Tilbrook’s Covid-delayed retrospective at the University Museum and Art Gallery on the University of Hong Kong campus in Pok Fu Lam has finally opened.

On display are the indefatigable 90-year-old artist’s latest abstract paintings, imbued as they are with a deep concern for the future of humanity, alongside earlier works such as his much-loved Hong Kong heritage paintings.

Titled “Past and Present”, the exhibition was to have opened on February 18, Tilbrook’s 90th birthday.

“I don’t know if you realise, but this is the oldest museum in Hong Kong. And when I was about to have this exhibition on my 90th birthday, I thought how suitable it was to have the exhibition here,” Tilbrook says.

Brian Tilbrook at home on Lamma Island. Photo: Jonathan Wong

The exhibition is a distillation of his career since he moved to Hong Kong in 1965. It includes a photograph of one of his best-known works: the giant mural of Hong Kong’s historic harbourfront inside the Hong Kong Club.

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