Encounters and Reflections: Art and Artists of Twentieth-Century China
As part of its 25th anniversary celebrations, the HKU Museum Society is proud to sponsor an international art conference, 'Encounters and Reflections: Art and Artists of Twentieth-Century China'. This conference is held in conjunction with an exhibition of works of art from the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection at the University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong.
Professor Michael Sullivan is one of the pioneers of modern Chinese art history, and his contributions to the field will be recognized in a one-day conference made up of two separate components: a morning session of lectures examining various modes of encounters in painting; and an afternoon roundtable discussion of artists and writers with Professor Sullivan as they reflect on modern Chinese art and its practices. The collaboration of these two events endorses a dialogue that crosses institutional boundaries, and aim to form stronger ties between scholarship and art practice, the viewer and the artist.
With funding from the University of Hong Kong Museum Society, this conference is hosted by the University Museum and Art Gallery in association with members from the Department of Fine Arts at HKU.
SESSION ONE – Art Encounters in Twentieth-Century China
In a series of five papers, this session will focus on the transformations and repercussions of cross-cultural encounters. Each speaker will examine the various ways that encounters lead to transformations, whether of genre, material, or themes, and how these transformations affect or reflect on the relationships and communications between ink and oil, China and the West, and the individual and community. This session will expand on some of themes and ideas that are seen in the exhibition and will provide more in-depth investigation to current issues in twentieth-century modern Chinese art.
Our five speakers are scholars who have contributed to modern Chinese art history: Professor Julia Andrews (Ohio State University), Professor Shen Kuiyi (University of California San Diego), Dr. Chou Fang-mei (Graduate Institute of Art Study, National Central University Taipei), Dr. Francesca Dal Lago (independent researcher, Paris) and Dr. Pedith Chan (City University of Hong Kong). This session will be moderated by Dr. Yeewan Koon (The University of Hong Kong). Paper abstracts and information regarding this morning session will be available from December 2012. Further enquiries on papers should be addressed to Dr. Koon at [email protected].
SESSION TWO – Roundtable discussion: Artists, Writers and Curators
This roundtable will bring together artists, writers and curators of twentieth-century Chinese art to discuss the artist's practice, and the processes of translation, interpretation and story-telling that writers and curators enact as part of their disciplines. Held in the UMAG, the roundtable will also present an opportunity for participants to view the selection of works from the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection of twentieth-century Chinese art.
The discussants will include Professor Michael Sullivan of St. Catherine's College, Oxford; ink artist Liu Guosong; and Szeto Yuen-kit, Curator of the Xubaizhai Collection of Chinese art at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. The roundtable will be primarily in English, with some Chinese and will be moderated by Tina Yee-wan Pang, Curator of University Museum and Art Gallery, HKU.