THE Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) invites visitors to trace the footsteps of a 20th-century master with its ongoing exhibition, “Wu Guanzhong: Encountering Landscapes.” The show explores the artist’s lifelong journey of sketching, three decades after his return from studies in France.

Wu Guanzhong (1919–2010) is celebrated as one of the most influential figures in modern Chinese art, renowned for synthesizing the spirit of Chinese ink with the formal language of Western modernism. This exhibition focuses on his extensive travels, which took him to over 20 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and America.

Through a rich collection of sketches, ink works, and oil paintings, visitors can witness his evolution from figurative observation to bold abstraction. Highlights include “The Night of Oslo” and the newly exhibited “A Foreign Landscape (II),” a work on public display for the first time since its donation to the museum.

Hong Kong holds a special place in this narrative. The city’s fusion of East and West deeply resonated with Wu’s artistic ideals. The exhibition features “Victoria Harbour,” a unique piece created in the rain at the HKMoA in 2002 — the only sketch he ever publicly painted — alongside “Bird Street,” a 1990 work capturing the beauty of the city’s historic streetscapes.

To bring Wu’s legacy to a wider audience, the exhibition is complemented by contemporary and community engagement initiatives. Hong Kong artist Flyingpig (Wong Wing-shan) presents “Light Entry,” an immersive installation inspired by Wu’s ink painting “The Window’s Eye.” The work uses moving images to capture the human sentiment behind urban landscapes. Concurrently, the “Art Journey with Wu Guanzhong: Mobile Museum” — an educational art bus equipped with multimedia installations and interactive games— will visit over 140 local schools and community spots over the next two years.

The exhibition is part of a trio of new shows at the museum. The other two exhibitions include “Mini-figures in Paintings,” which explores the charm of tiny figures in Chinese landscape paintings from the Chih Lo Lou Collection, enhanced with animated elements; and “Fantastic Breeze: Selected Fans From the Jingguanlou Collection,” showcasing more than 150 folding fans alongside masterpieces by drawing masters such as Zhang Daqian and Qi Baishi.

The end dates for the three exhibitions have not been announced.

Venue: Hong Kong Museum of Art, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong(SD News)