1900s

Coming Exhibition: Chinese Painting~ Legacy of the 20th Century Chinese Masters

“Chinese Painting~ Legacy of the 20th Century Chinese Masters”

“Summer” (1985) by Chu Teh-chun [Zhu Dequn]

Who:

Leisure and Cultural Services Dept.
Hong Kong Museum of Art
Musée Cernuschi
Asian Arts Museum of Paris
Musée National des Arts Asiatiques Guimet

When: June 13, 2014 – Sept. 21, 2014 (Sat.-Sun 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.)

Where:

Hong Kong Museum of Art
10 Salisbury Road
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong

How Much: Standard ($10) Seniors 60+ ($5) Students ($5)

More Information: Here.

“Paris has long been a European art and cultural hub where the liberal atmosphere enabled different streams of thought to burgeon and thrive, and since the 20th century this city has seen generations of Chinese artists hone their painting skills. Following the trend to learn from the West new ways of transforming traditional conventions, these artists left their motherland in search of inspiration. Visiting museums and learning under the guidance of masters, they acquired Western painting skills and perceptions, pioneering a revolution in Chinese painting art circles.

Artists like Liu Haisu, Xu Beihong, Lin Fengmian and Pan Yuliang left early for France. These young Chinese artists had a mission. After returning to China, they contributed immensely to the introduction of artistic trends from overseas, the development of oil painting and bouleversement of Chinese painting. They also founded fine arts schools in the country, cultivating in a new generation of painters the aspiration to further their studies in France. Among these students, Zao Wou-ki, Chu Teh-chun and Wu Guanzhong became well-known figures in the international art scene, anchoring the notion of ‘creating the art of an era’.

This exhibition showcases almost a hundred works, including oil paintings, Chinese ink paintings, sketches, lithographs, sculptures and more, demonstrating the impact and revelation of European art on 20th century Chinese painting. Exhibits have been composed from the collections of the Musée Cernuschi, Asian Arts Museum of Paris, the Hong Kong Museum of Art and several major institutions in France.

The Musée Cernuschi holds one of the finest Chinese art collections in France, and its Chinese painting collection comprises the works of various Chinese painters who travelled to France during the 20th century, illustrating their different practices and inclinations on the blending of Chinese and Western painting skills.”

Chinese Artist: Wang Bu

“Vases with Bird-and-Flower Painting” by Wang Bu (1898–1968)

Artist

Wang Bu was a 20th Century Chinese artist that specialized in working with Ceramics. He was officially trained in the blue and white art, working under an expert tutor for several years. Wang Bu’s first significant work came when popular ceramic artist, Wu Aisheng, hired him to design porcelain items in the style so popular during the Ming and Qing periods. He would continue working with porcelain and ceramics for the rest of his life, preferring to decorate them in the blue and white coloring his father and mentor had loved.

Wang Bu made two great contributions to the art field. First, He created the innovative method of using Chinese brush drawing to add the blue and white colors onto his ceramics and porcelain works ~ a technique that many other artists would soon pick up. Second, he invented a “coloring pigment” by using the Chinese ink painting technique. This pigment helped the colors used on ceramics to stay bright and colorful, as opposed to dulling and spotting as it dried.

He briefly abandoned the blue and white style during the tumultuous period of WWII an the Anti-Japanese War. However, he would later return to his roots, and eventually earned the title “King of Blue and White. In the sixty years that he worked, he designed millions of works, many of which are still famous today.

Influences

His father, Xiuquing, who was an expert in blue and white painting.
Xu Yousheng, his teacheer and another expert artist that worked with blue and white painting.
Ming and Qing Dynasty ceramic artists.

Stylistic Characteristics

Blue and White Coloring ~ particularly over-glazed with colors underneath or paste on paste.
Ceramics and Porcelain canvases.
Use of Chinese brush drawing or ink painting.
Bright, smooth coloring.
He seems to have like flowers, animals, and natural subjects.
His signature in his later years was often “the old man Taoqing.”

Coming Exhibition: A Parallel Tale ~ Taipei in 80s X Hong Kong in 90s

“A Parallel Tale ~ Taipei in 80s X Hong Kong in 90s”

Who:

Comic Home Base
Hong Kong Arts Centre
Dala Publishing Company

When: June 25, 2014 – Aug. 31, 2014 (Sat.-Sun 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.)

Where:

Comic Home Base
North Campus Drive
Provo, Utah 84602

How Much: Free!

More Information: Here and Here.

Participating Hong Kong Comics Artist: Fung Chi-ming, Ho Ka-fai, Seeman Ho, Li Chi-tak, Justin Wong
Participating Taipei Comics Artist: 61Chi, Sean Chuang, Amin Lee, Push Comic (Ah Tui), Ahn Zhe (Tu Tse-Wei)

Comics artists from Hong Kong and Taipei set out on a fascinating time-travel trip with their drawing pens, taking a stroll down the memory lane to trace the footprints they left in the two cities in the 80s and 90s. Stories and scenes that pop up in the artists’ minds as they revisit the old times are transformed into pages of original comics – some light-hearted and some thought-provoking – to illuminate their memories of the people and things from a few decades ago, and even the social and cultural phenomena at that time.

Featuring 10 comics artists and 10 comics works loaded with nostalgia, the exhibition takes everyone to travel backward in time, returning to the Hong Kong and Taiwan in the sweet, old past. The exhibition was held in Taiwan as one of the programmes of the “Hong Kong Week 2013@Taipei” and received overwhelming response. The exhibition will be shown in Hong Kong in this summer. In addition to the exhibition, there are also a series of side events aiming to offer the general public valuable insight into the comics and publishing industry both in the past and at present, as well as the startling artistic ability and creative talent of the artists from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Side Events

– 1+1 Live Drawing Demonstration

– Sharing Session: I Am a Comics Artist/ Publisher!

Hong Kong’s Art Scene is Growing Better all the Time and Art Basel is Just Part of It

“Hong Kong’s Art Scene is Growing Better all the Time and Art Basel is Just Part of It”

by John Batten via “South China Morning Post“

“It’s a tired cliché constantly heard but, yes, Hong Kong’s art scene is stronger “than before”. There’s now a wider variety of commercial art galleries and Art Basel’s choice for its Asian outpost has made the city a destination for international collectors, curators and art personalities.

However, there are still few domestic collectors dedicated to contemporary art, and there is a dearth of continuing and provocative museum exhibitions charting the contemporary art world. That’s notwithstanding the anticipated opening in 2017 of M+, the planned museum of visual culture at the West Kowloon Cultural District.

Within two years of its inception the art fair has become a magnetic juggernaut attracting international galleries and visitors

(more…)

Coming Exhibition: Second Sight

“Second Sight”

What: Works by artist S M Sultan from the private collection of Abul Khair.

Who: Bengal Foundation

When: May 23, 2014 – July. 13, 2014 (Mon-Sat. 12 p.m. – 8 p.m.)

Where:

Daily Star-Bengal Arts Precinct
64-65 Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue
Karwan Bazar, Dhaka

How Much: Looks free, but I couldn’t find a price.

More Information: Here.

“On Friday night Bengal Foundation’s fourth arts venue in Dhaka,’Daily Star-Bengal Arts Precinct’ was jointly launched by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder and Chairperson of BRAC and Dr. Anisuzzaman, Professor Emeritus University of Dhaka who also spoke on the occasion. Mahfuz Anam, Editor and Publisher of The Daily Star Newspaper, Abul Khair, Chairman of Bengal Foundation, Luva Nahid Choudhury, Director-General of Bengal Foundation and Sadia Rahman, Deputy Director of Bengal Foundation also shared their thoughts during the ceremony.

In celebration of the event, Bengal Foundation organised a special exhibition of selected works by Sheikh Mohammed Sultan, from the private collection of Abul Khair, for which a commemorative catalogue has also been produced.

At this new site, Bengal Foundation looks forward to broadening and deepening the scope of its cultural endeavours in ways that complement and extend the work of the Foundation’s other arts facilities in Dhaka: Bengal Gallery, Bengal Art Lounge and Safiuddin Bengal Printmaking Studio. With this in view, Bengal Foundation has conceived of the Arts Precinct as a non-commercial arts venue, which will operate purely for the public benefit.”