“It is only natural that the artists active in Hong Kong mount their pursuits in all forms, drawing inspiration from both East and West.”

    — Tang Hoi-chiu, chief curator of the Hong Kong Museum of Art

    Newman Huo

    A GROUP of nine painters from Hong Kong are showing more than 100 of their ink paintings at a joint exhibition in the National Art Museum of China in Beijing until Sunday.

    Titled “Shuimo Hong Kong: Exhibition of Hong Kong Ink Paintings,” the joint exhibition opened with a grand ceremony in the national art museum Monday. It will return to the Shenzhen Fine Art Institute after the Beijing exhibition.

    The nine painters include Wucius Wong, Wong Chau-tung, He Baili, Lam Wu-fui, Wong Hau-kwei, Shen Ping, Nigel Szeto, Hung Hoi, and Lam Ting-xing. All of the painters have worked in the Shenzhen Fine Art Institute as visiting artists on exchange programs.

    “Hong Kong has always been a place where East meets West and a convergence of liberal and conservative sensibilities, embodying a synthesis of artistic and cultural elements,” said Tang Hoi-chiu, chief curator of the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

    “It is only natural that the artists active in Hong Kong mount their pursuits in all forms, drawing inspiration from both East and West,” Tang said.

    Wucius Wong is the oldest and most illustrious Hong Kong painter participating in the exhibition.

    Born in Dongguan, Guangdong Province in 1936, Wong emigrated to Hong Kong in 1949. In the late 1950s, Hong Kong entered a phase of stable development when artists began to draw inspiration from Western influence.

    Wong learned Chinese painting from Lu Shoukun, the founder of the influential New Ink Movement in Hong Kong. Lu was the main driving force in the development of modern art in the city in the 1960s and 1970s.

    In 1958, Wong and his friends founded the Modern Literature and Art Association, making him one of the earliest pioneers in introducing Western ideas to art in Hong Kong. In 1961, he went to the United States to study art and design.

    A renowned graphic designer, he taught at the design department of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and is now teaching at the fine arts department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

    The integration of design geometry and majestic landscape characterizes Wong’s paintings, in which he has successfully accomplished the ambitious combination of Western design concepts with traditional Chinese ink painting.

    The three participating artists, Lam Wu-fui, He Baili and Nigel Szeto, all hailed from the Lingnan School of Painting, which was founded by Gao Jianfu, Gao Qifeng and Chen Shuren in the 1920s, and has exerted influence on places as diverse as Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

    Studying in his early years at the International Art School and later under the wing of Chinese master painter Leung Pak-yu, Lam practiced in the traditional school of art before being taken under the wing of Lingnan master painter Zhao Shao-ang.

    While mastering a broad spectrum of basic skills in Western painting, Lam has also adopted the spirit of the Lingnan School.

    Subjects he frequently depicts include goldfish, birds and animals. These paintings are a testament to his emphasis on minute observation of objects lying at the core of the Lingnan School, capturing facial expressions and motions which his subjects make, such as the gaze and posture of a cat, and the motion of a fish.

    Excelling in the technique of pomo (splash-ink) in painting landscapes, He underscores the changing light and shadow and the realm shrouded in misty fog and clouds using powerful, rich brushstrokes.

    Eschewing the earthy organic structures and textures of mountains and water, he opts for abstract expressions and the use of ink in the portrayal of landscape imagery, transforming the traditional landscape into a contemporary context.

    Proficient in rendering floral designs, urban landscapes and people on canvas, Szeto takes his subjects from real life and unleashes the spirit of the Lingnan School to the fullest.

    Wong Hau-kwei, Shen Ping, Wong Chau-tung, Hung Hoi, and Lam Ting-xing are all immigrants who arrived in Hong Kong during the late 1970s or early 1980s. They have gone through different experiences of struggle and survival and eventually resorted to ink painting to represent their cultural thinking and aesthetic choice.

    Born in Xiamen, Fujian Province, Hung was initially tutored by his father in painting before being enrolled at the Xiamen Crafts Factory.

    Moving to Hong Kong in 1978, he began his training under the master tutelage of Yang Shanshen. Adept at the full landscape painting style of the Song Dynasty, Hung delves deep into the nuances of traditional painting schools, while soaking up nutrients from a plethora of trends and schools which flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

    In recent years, he has opted to portray landscapes purely in water and ink, executing with precision the surface lines on rocks and hills and bestowing on the mountains and water an air at once fresh and elegant, powerful and mighty beyond the figurative.

    The exhibition is supported by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and Home Affairs Bureau Arts Development Fund.