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Professor Jao Tsung-I, HKU Vice-Chancellor Professor Lap-Chee Tsui and Director of Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole Professor C.F. Lee

Professor Jao Tsung-I has been affiliated with the University of Hong Kong (HKU) as a scholar, poet and painter since the early 1950s. When the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole of theHKU was established in 2003, Professor Jao contributed two sets of donations, which can be regarded as the major portion of this academic institute. Over the years, Professor Jao has contributed over 30,000 books to HKU, including hundreds of wood board printed editions of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The other part of the contribution comprises his calligraphy, paintings and studio objects.

To express sincere gratitude to Professor Jao, the University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG) presents an exhibition of the calligraphy, paintings and books (written and collected) contributed by Professor Jao from April 17 to June 23, 2013. This “Amalgamation of Scholarship and Art - Selected Artworks of Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole's Collection” gives testimony not only to the wealth of talent and accomplishments that mark the outstanding career of Professor Jao, but also to his unparalleled generosity towards HKU and the rich donation he bestowed upon the University.  Both his literary and visual works are characteristic of the scholar’s intellectual interests, research and knowledge of Chinese classics and the history of art and literature, and his ease and versatility to adopt traditional values.

“Amalgamation of Scholarship and Art -- Selected Artworks of Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole's Collection” exhibition opening ceremony

For the exhibition, Professor Jao selected his most representative works from those he created in the past decades. These artworks not only symbolize his artistic development and achievements, but exemplify the scholar artist’s accomplishments in calligraphy and painting.

Beautifully executed masterpieces in their own right, Professor Jao’s ink and water colour paintings represent a repertoire of techniques that testifies to the artist’s adaptation of styles—both thematic and practical—that allude to different schools primarily during the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties.  Equally, the iconographic variety includes figures from Dunhuang frescos, as well as traditional landscapes and symbolic animals and flowers, such as his “Landscapes of the Four Seasons”, “Two Fish” and “Red Lotus”, which evoke the learned philosophies ever-present in the works of the scholarly artist.