Media

HKU weekly notice (from February 6 to 13, 2016)

05 Feb 2016

 

UMAG exhibitions
1. The story of a Hong Kong painter told through paintings “Nature in its harmonious forms: Paintings by Tao Wan”

Period: January 20 (Wednesday) to February 21, 2016 (Sunday)

Nature in its harmonious forms: Paintings by Tao Wan is a comprehensive selection of the artist’s creative output and artistic theories. The exhibition at the University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG) of the University of Hong Kong highlights objects from the recent acquisition of nearly three hundred works generously donated by Tao’s family, which include landscape paintings and seals.

Tao was renowned for his landscape paintings. The distinctive qualities of his artwork incorporated traditional styles rendered with an agitated, dry and ragged brush. One of his primary inspirations was to reinterpret the ancient masters, refining and including the essence of natural landscapes, so as to create a uniquely expressive style that illustrates his particular mindscape. He insisted on including elements from nature that reflect the following: “the mind always leads the brush” and “don’t be held back by sketches”. Tao was perceived as being a Chinese traditionalist, and was a major representative of the art of Cantonese Diaspora painting and its development in 20th century Hong Kong.

Tao moved to Hong Kong from Canton after 1949, which is where he began to develop his landscape paintings and critical theories of Chinese art. The current exhibition presents the evolution of Tao’s artistic style from the early 1950s to 2003. Over one hundred objects will be displayed, including paintings, calligraphy, seals, manuscripts, photographs and a video demonstrating his painting technique. The landscape paintings are categorised into Pursuing the Past, Essence of a Natural Landscape, Rhythm of a Mindscape, and Album Leaves. Many of the exhibits have never been shown in public, including his manuscript Theories on Chinese Painting, his calligraphy, paintings and seals. While the current exhibition illustrates the artistic development, achievements and contributions of Tao Wan, the broader collection, including historical documents, retells his entire life—a story that is familiar to many Hong Kong Cantonese refugee painters in the 20th century. These objects form a more complete and vivid picture of his oeuvre, and are essential for an understanding and analysis of the history of the global Cantonese Diaspora, and of the general history of Chinese art during this period.

Painting Demonstration
Time: 15:00 – 16:30
Venue: 1/F, Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, HKU, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam
(Cantonese) February 20, 2016 (Saturday)
For more information, please refer to the Painting Demonstration document.

2. “Illustrious Illuminations: Christian Manuscripts from the High Gothic to the High Renaissance (1250-1500)” An exhibition of 40 exquisite selections of illuminated manuscripts and sculptures

Period: December 11, 2015 (Friday) to February 28, 2016 (Sunday)

The University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG), in collaboration with the McCarthy Collection, displays for the first time in Hong Kong 41 exquisite selections of Gothic and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts and 7 sculptures.

Illuminated manuscript is a form of miniature painting. European manuscripts are typically Christian texts in which the image illustrates and further explains the word. Decorations in tempera paint, ink and gold on vellum (high-quality parchment) help to both clarify and beautify the text. Long treasured as visual presentations of the Christian Gospel, these miniature paintings give evidence of the talent and culture connected to the art of book illustration.

At a time when large parts of society remained illiterate, both text and image in rare books, such as Bibles and Books of Hours, presented an art form to which only a few community members had access. Books of Hours are Christian devotional books that were popular in the Middle Ages or Medieval Times (5th–14th centuries AD). Being the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript, they contained prayers appropriate for the various times/hours in the liturgical day. Today, in a flood of visual information, these exceptional documents highlight the important historic and cultural context from which they emerge.

English guided tours
12 & 19 February 2016 (Friday) 13:30 – 14:00

Cantonese guided tours
27 February 2016 (Saturday) 16:00 – 16:30

Registration: Free. For online registration, please visit UMAG website.

3. “Erich Lessing: The Pulse of Time—Capturing Social Change in Post-war Europe”

Period: November 27, 2015 (Friday) to February 14, 2016 (Sunday)

The University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG) collaborates with the Austrian Consulate for Hong Kong and Macau as well as the Erich Lessing Archive to present the photography of celebrated Magnum photographer Erich Lessing. Lessing began working for the Associated Press in 1947, and joined Magnum Photos as one of its first members in 1951. He documented political events in post-war Europe, primarily in the former Communist countries.

The Pulse of Time includes nearly 100 documentary images from the pinnacle of Lessing’s career in the 1950s and 1960s, which illustrate the journalist’s ability to be working in the right place at the right time. Lessing reported on many of the most significant political event in post-war Europe and his, now historical, photographs record social and economic change in ever developing societies in both Eastern and Western Europe. Some of his works include Enthusiastic Austrians in the park at the Belvedere, which was photographed in 1955; Traffic check at the Brandenburg Gate, which was photograph in 1959 showed the division of Berlin, while a border guard at the center of the Brandenburg Gate controlled the city’s residents moving from one sector to another; and Vienna Opera Ball, was photographed in 1960. 

English guided tours:
February 12, 2016 (Friday) – 13:00 – 13:30

Registration: Free. For online registration, please visit UMAG website.

UMAG Opening Hours:
09:30 – 18:00 (Monday to Saturday)
13:00 – 18:00 (Sunday)
Closed on University and Public Holidays
Venue: T.T. Tsui Building, UMAG, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam
Tel/Email: (852) 2241 5500 (General Enquiry) / museum@hku.hk
Admission: Free
Website: www.hkumag.hku.hk

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/umag.hku
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UMAG_HKU
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Media enquiries:
UMAG Communication Officer Miss Elena Cheung, Tel: (852) 2241 5512, Email: elenac@hku.hk