Art Hong Kong exhibition pairs modern and contemporary Chinese paintings in a dialogue between past and present
- A Chinese art ‘gala’ in Hong Kong includes an exhibition of paintings by 20th-century pioneers such as Wu Guanzhong and Qi Baishi alongside contemporary pieces
- Intended to create a conversation about the essence of Chinese traditional culture, it is part of efforts to promote the city as a centre for cultural exchange
In case you are wondering, Art Hong Kong is not an art fair.
The inaugural Chinese art and culture “gala” currently taking place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre has nothing to do with Art HK, the predecessor of Art Basel Hong Kong that ran from 2008 to 2012.
Rather, it is a celebration of Chinese art organised by Chinese state-owned Bauhinia Culture Holdings and co-presented by the China Young Leaders Foundation – an organisation chaired by Adrian Cheng Chi-kong, chief executive of Hong Kong property developer New World Development – and the Chinese art gallery Tsi Ku Chai.
Between them, the organisers have managed to bring to Hong Kong around 40 works and series by 14 modern and contemporary artists that have never been shown in the city before.
The event is part of a series organised by state-affiliated entities to promote a national plan to position Hong Kong as an East-meets-West centre for cultural exchange.
One of the first paintings that visitors see is Plum Blossoms and Bamboo (1945) by Xu Beihong and Qi Baishi. Reflecting the friendship between the two artists, the bamboo and stones were painted by Xu, while the plum blossoms were painted by Qi.
Positioned below the bamboo, the plum blossoms indicate Qi’s humility and respect for his friend.
Wu’s Winter Snow (1978) depicts a serene landscape near the artist’s residence in Shichahai, a lakeland area in Beijing, while Lin’s Impressionist Flowers (year unknown) is reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s works despite a layering of light and shadow that is typical of traditional Chinese painting.
Among the works by contemporary artists, Three Trips to the Water in the Village of Lutz (2021-2022) by Wang Tiande is a nine-panel monochromatic painting that depicts craggy rocks and mountains in an aesthetic style akin to paintings from the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties.
A pioneer of avant-garde Chinese contemporary ink art, Wang painted this work in ink on rice paper with burn marks from incense.
Born in Fuzhou, in Fujian province, Lam Tianxing is the only featured contemporary artist based in Hong Kong. He presents “Sceneries”, a series of landscapes based on the city that take influence from Expressionism.
A double-decker bus can be seen among trees and houses in New Territories Sunrise (2022), while Misty Raining Tree (2022) features an innocent park swing.
Sand (2012-2019), a work in ceramic by Liu Jianhua, offers an illusory experience that challenges our views of materiality, while Zhang Yanzi’s mixed media series “Her 24 Solar Terms” documents fragments of a woman’s life, with fruit and vegetables alluding to the female form.
Meanwhile, Xie Xiaoze’s intricate ink paintings reference star maps, atlases and astrological diagrams to examine various frameworks of thinking.
The three-panel Eastern and Western Cosmologies (2020), in particular, juxtaposes different cultural depictions of life and death; a Buddhist cosmological structure is seen alongside the hierarchies of hell, purgatory and heaven in Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Alongside the exhibition, the four-day gala includes a series of art forums, community workshops and classes run by the Xiling Seal Art Society, a Chinese arts academy founded in 1904.
Art Hong Kong, Hall 5G, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, 1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai, 10am-7pm. Until Nov. 19.
