Newman Huo
WHAT is Shenzhen like in the eyes of Hong Kong artists? And how is Hong Kong perceived by Shenzhen artists? The four-day Shenzhen and Hong Kong Ink Painting Exchange Exhibition, which opened in Hong Kong Central Library in Causeway Bay on Tuesday, tries to answer these questions.
The exhibition features 81 paintings by 18 painters from Shenzhen and 15 painters from Hong Kong. Artists from each city have tried to depict the other city through modern ink paintings.
Born in 1936, Wucius Wong is the oldest and most reputable Hong Kong painter participating in the exhibition.
In his two works, Wong depicts the roots of maidenhair trees in a forest near Baguang Village in Longgang District, which he visited with a dozen Hong Kong painters last March at the invitation of the Shenzhen Fine Art Institute (SFAI).
“Since the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland in 1997, the special administration region’s art and culture has taken on a slow development while art and culture have developed rapidly on the mainland,” Wong said.
“The roots of maidenhair trees in Shenzhen have made me wonder where the cultural root of Hong Kong really lies, providing me with the source of artistic inspirations,” he added.
Hong Kong painter Hung Hoi has contributed two paintings as well as a series of sketches of Shenzhen’s urban landscape.
Born in Xiamen, Fujian Province, in 1957, Hung learned Chinese painting from renowned painter Yang Shanshen after moving to Hong Kong in 1978. Last April he visited Shenzhen with his wife, and made a lot of sketches on urban life and landscapes in the city.
In his two paintings, “Shenzhen Impression” and “Dapeng Waves,” Hung attempts to blend Chinese and Western painting subjects and techniques. Employing traditional Chinese brushstrokes with acrylic and oil paints from the West, Hung creates a hazy and intoxicating ambience.
Four paintings by Wong Chau-tung, chairman of Hong Kong Culture and Arts Exchange Association, are on display at the exhibition. The paintings depict Litchi Park in Futian District, city life in the Dongmen and Huaqiangbei business areas, and the Diwang Mansion area at night.
Born in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province in 1944, Wong moved with his family to Hong Kong in 1979.
Wong, who has a workshop in Shenzhen, enjoys visiting Litchi Park. The park is one of his favorite subjects, and he is good at depicting the misty landscape of the lake in the wet morning air.
In her three paintings on display, Hong Kong artist Chai Bukuk depicts the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Western Corridor and Honghu Lake in Luohu District in her own way.
A graduate of the art college of Nanjing Normal University, Chai immigrated to Hong Kong in 1991.
“Hong Kong is an established international city, where everything has taken on a mature form, while Shenzhen is a modern and young city, where everything is changing almost every day,” Chai said.
“This has required me to boldly break traditional norms of Chinese painting, and adopt new concepts and techniques from the Western and even contemporary arts in depicting the dynamic landscapes and life in Shenzhen,” she added.
Like their Hong Kong peers, Shenzhen artists have portrayed the neighboring city using new techniques.
Born in Hong Kong in 1948, Dong Xiaoming, president of the SFAI and chairman of Shenzhen Federation of Art and Literary Circles, has combined ink painting techniques with new mediums in his four paintings to capture the spirit of Hong Kong.
Zhou Kai, a retired SFAI painters, has five paintings on display. These paintings were completed in March 1997, based on the sketches he made on his first tour around Hong Kong with a group of SFAI artists in 1996.
Zhou’s works were once shown in a major art exhibition in Hong Kong in July, 1997 to celebrate the territory’s handover to the Chinese mainland. Among them, one 234-centimeter-long and 72-centimeter-wide scroll depicts Central District on Hong Kong Island with heavy colors on Korean Koryo-paper made from mulberry fiber.
The other four paintings depict Hong Kong landmarks, such as the Tsing Ma Bridge and cable cars to Victoria Peak, using abstract oil painting techniques.
With heavy colors and strong strokes, the SFAI painter Lu Jia, portrays the famous Star Ferry watchtower, which has a history of more than 100 years.
Jointly organized by the SFAI and Hong Kong Ink Painters’ Association, the exhibition is the first major art event to have been sponsored by both Shenzhen and Hong Kong governments.
“The main purpose of the exhibition is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of China’s reforms and opening up as well as to enhance exchanges between Shenzhen and Hong Kong artists, develop traditional Chinese ink painting and strengthen the influence of ink paining on international art scene,” Dong Xiaoming said at the opening ceremony Tuesday.
In the early 1990s, the SFAI was the first organization in China to put forward the concept of “metropolis ink painting,” calling on painters to pay close attention to modern city life and landscapes in Shenzhen rather instead of focusing on nature and rural landscapes as traditional Chinese landscape painters have done for centuries.
The SFAI has so far organized five international ink painting biennales, through which metropolis ink painting has been increasingly accepted by painters in China and abroad.
According to Lee Kam-yin, chairman of the visual art division of Hong Kong Arts Development Council, there are currently two channels for artistic and cultural exchanges between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. One is governmental cooperation, and the other is communication between artists.
The exhibition will move to Shenzhen on March 20, after it ends in Hong Kong on Friday.
