Archives: Activity

The HKU Museum Society is pleased to present a joint UMAG programme: Paintings in Glass – Glass Mosaic Workshop with Virginia Kwok.

Organised in conjunction with the exhibition Pablo Picasso: Paintings in Glass, this workshop will introduce the techniques of assembling and layering glass mosaics into pictorial depictions on a light box. Drawing inspiration from the gemmaux glass panels on display, participants will delve into the captivating effects of light on glass as they craft their own glass mosaic. They will also discover the material’s potential in reinterpreting the vivid brushstrokes and colour palette reminiscent of Pablo Picasso’s paintings.

Instructor
Virginia Kwok’s use of colour and light as her primary medium and her experimentation with various materials to play with light and shadow distinguishes her as an innovative artist. She served as the personal assistant to the renowned Colombian artist, Mr. Fernando Botero, during his time in Asia. This experience provided her with valuable insights into the art world and was a catalyst for her passion for creating.

The HKU Museum Society is pleased to present a lecture and lunch on Ships of the Silk Road – The Bactrian Camel in Chinese Jade by Angus Forsyth at Ming Pavilion, Senior Common Room, HKU.

For hundreds of years, the Bactrian Camel ploughed a lonely furrow across the vast wilderness of Asia – a routing now popularly known as the Silk Road.

This bizarre-looking temperamental and yet hardy creature here came into its own as the core goods vehicle, resolutely and reliably transporting to China – over the huge and unforgiving distances – fine things from the West while taking treasures out of the Middle Kingdom in return. Throughout, where the chariot, wagon and other wheeled conveyances proved useless amidst the shifting sense of the desert dunes, the sure footed progress of the camel – the archetypal “Ship of the Silk Road” – now reigned supreme over 2500 years only being edged into replacement in the closing century of the last millennium by the construction of proper roads and the passage of goods using the internal combustion engine transforming the Bactrian Camel from a major utility to a tourist attraction.

 

Speaker

Angus Forsyth commenced work in private practice as a solicitor in 1971. In 1972 he joined the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch and has been a life member for many years. He began a jade collection in 1973 focusing only on nephrite jade worked in China from Neolithic Times up to the Qing Dynasty.

He was a founder member of the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong in 1974 and was its President in the two year period from 1984 to 1986. In 1975 he acquired his first jade Bactrian Camel of a Tang Dynasty date. This was an introduction to the mystique surrounding this remarkable animal as the unique beast of burden which carried all manner of goods from East and West on an exclusive role of trade linking China in the East with Rome in the West. From the 2nd to the 8th Century A.D. the principal traffic control and management providing Bactrian Camel transport on the Silk Road was operated by the Soghdians, an Iranian tribe from the Northeast Altai Mountains who followed the Zoroastrian fire worship religion.

In 1990 Angus Forsyth contributed an article on his study of the development of human sculptural form in Hong Shan Neolithic jade working which was published in Orientations Magazine and remains a leading article on the subject. In 1991 he contributed two chapters on Early Chinese jade to a large book on jade featuring the jade of all producer countries worldwide. In 1994 he wrote the first half on early jades of a joint publication with Brian McElney forming the catalogue of a major exhibition of both their collections at the Museum of Far Eastern Art in Bath, England.

The HKU Museum Society is delighted to present a guided viewing of Embracing Landscapes: The Artistic Journey of Professor Jao Tsung-I with John Yiu, Deputy Director of the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole at The University of Hong Kong.

This exhibition is a collaboration between The University Museum and Art Gallery and the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole, both of the University of Hong Kong, in celebration of the highly personal and enduring artistic oeuvre of Professor Jao Tsung-I. A renowned Chinese literary scholarly and artist, Professor Jao began his career at HKU in 1952, setting out to develop an international network of like-minded academics, and explored the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia.

Embracing Landscapes: The Artistic Journey of Professor Jao Tsung-I features interpretations of landscapes from different corners of the world, including large-scale paintings that depict well-known sites in Hong Kong, China and overseas. Individual artworks reflect the distinctive character of each site and are represented through Professor Jao’s use of the traditional Chinese medium of ink and brush, as well as western painting techniques. The paintings are also a testament to the monumental effect of the various landscapes and exemplify the care he took in merging the essence of painted images and commemorative poems. Through these exhibits, the audience has the unique opportunity to retrace Professor Jao’s footsteps and experience his profound impressions of diverse continents across the globe.

 

Speaker
John Yiu is Deputy Director of the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole at The University of Hong Kong. He is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, specialising in Song paintings. His current research interests include social decorum in figural art. He plays the qin and studies it with Dr Tse Chun Yan. He is a committee member of the Deyin Qin Society.

 

The HKU Museum Society is delighted to present a guided viewing of Cartier and Women at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. Organized and curated by the HKPM with support of Cartier, this exhibition will feature loans generously provided by the Cartier Collection and private collections.

As the first major exhibition on the role and influence of women in the history of Cartier, it will present approximately 300 stunning treasures created by Cartier, which include jewelry, timepieces, precious objects, accessories, and archival records spanning from the 19th century to the present day. The exhibition explores the bond between women and jewelry through a series of captivating narratives that reflect Cartier’s deep connections with many influential women throughout history and in the present day. The exhibition will highlight how Chinese art has inspired Cartier in design, style, decorative motif, technique and material in particular, and how Chinese aesthetics has influenced women’s lifestyle and global fashion in general.

 

Image Credit:
Left: Bib necklace, Cartier Collection, Provenance: Duchess of Windsor (1896-1986), Nils Herrmann, Collection Cartier © Cartier
Right: Chinese Vanity Case, Cartier Paris, 1928, Cartier Collection, Nils Herrmann, Collection Cartier © Cartier
Courtesy of Hong Kong Palace Museum

The HKU Museum Society is delighted to present a guided viewing of Anselm Kiefer: Golden Age with Arthur de Villepin, Chairman and Co-founder of Villepin Gallery and Craft Dialogue with Susanna Pang, Founder of SOIL.

Anselm Kiefer: Golden Age
Through the long-standing personal relationship between the founders of Villepin and Anselm Kiefer, the exhibition has been collaboratively curated and offers a selective view of the practice of one of the most important artists of his generation. Anselm Kiefer: Golden Age will feature paintings and a sculpture created between 2020 and 2022.
 
The exhibition takes its cue from Greek and historical myths, which often allude to the peak of human civilization, denoting a period of primordial prosperity and peace. Kiefer has previously referenced German philosopher and cultural critic Ernst Bloch, who renews the core idea of, and interest in, utopia. In his book The Principle of Hope, Bloch explores the idea of the Golden Age as a utopian ideal, defining the concept of utopia as a philosophy that envisions a better future for humanity. Bloch argues that hope and striving for a better world are fundamental to human existence, and that this impulse is what drives people to create art, music, and literature.

Installed across three floors in the gallery, Kiefer’s works allude to the utopian ideal, capturing the transformative nature and alchemical process of their creation.
 
Speaker
Arthur de Villepin is the chairman and co-founder of Villepin, as well as an entrepreneur and avid collector of art. The son of former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, Arthur grew up surrounded by artists. His mother is the celebrated sculptor Marie-Laure Viebel de Villepin and his sister, Marie de Villepin, has established a successful career as a painter. Throughout his childhood and extensive travels, Arthur was introduced to many leading artists, including Zao Wou-Ki, Anselm Kiefer, Myonghi Kang, Pierre Soulages and Miquel Barceló, all of whom trained him to see art through the eyes of artists rather than the market.

He is currently on the Executive Committee of The Friends of Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Creative Industries committee for Art & Culture of the French Chamber of Commerce, and is also an Art Ambassador of the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
 
Craft Dialogue
Celebrating the diversity of contemporary crafts, Crafts Dialogue aims to explore how cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary approaches can inform long-standing values associated with craft practice and innovation.  The finest assemblage of contemporary crafts features works from different parts of Asia, including lacquer, ceramics, metal, and mixed media. 
 
About SOIL
Founded in 2012, SOIL aims to promote crafts through the inspiring history, culture and humanity behind them.  Since 2018, SOIL has started a dedicated gallery to present the art of lacquer from Asia.  It is probably the first gallery which brings together lacquer masters and artists of diverse cultures, blending the traditional with the contemporary to showcase variety in the discipline.​

 

Photo Credit:
Left: Anselm Kiefer, Im Frühtau zu Berge, 2021-2022. Emulsion, oil, acrylic, shellac, gold leaf, straw, steel and charcoal on canvas, 190 x 280 cm
Courtesy of Villepin

Right: Courtesy of SOIL

The HKU Museum Society is delighted to present a guided viewing of Pablo Picasso: Paintings in Glass with Dr. Florian Knothe, Director of UMAG.

This exhibition Pablo Picasso: Paintings in Glass is an unprecedented display of works by the world-famous twentieth-century painter, supported by the French May Arts Festival and Hongkong Land. In the mid-1950s, the workshops of Roger Malherbe-Navarre expanded on the light boxes of French painter Jean Crotti by layering pieces of glass into pictorial depictions (gemmail, French for ‘enamel gem’) of several of Picasso’s paintings.

Impressed by the gemmistes’ masterful assembling and fusing of carefully selected glass, Picasso declared ‘A new art is born!’ Made and exhibited to explore and display the medium’s artistic possibilities, the results are simply astonishing. The selection of works on loan from a private collection, and on view at UMAG during the French May Arts Festival 2023, shed a new light on some of Picasso’s most renowned painterly compositions.

Speaker
Dr. Florian Knothe teaches the history of decorative arts in the 17th and 18th century with particular focus on the social and historic importance of royal French manufacture. He has long been interested in the early modern fascination with Chinoiserie and the way royal workshops and smaller private enterprises helped to create and cater to this long-lasting fashion. Dr. Knothe worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art focusing on European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, and on European and East Asian glass at The Corning Museum of Glass, before his current position as Director of the University Museum and Art Gallery at HKU.

Photo Credit:
Still life with pigeon (Nature morte au pigeon) Roger Malherbe-Navarre (Les Gemmaux de France studio) After Pablo Picasso 1954–1957 Gemmail H. 70.5 cm x W. 85 cm Private collection
Courtesy of UMAG

Notice is hereby given that the Thirteenth Annual General Meeting of The University of Hong Kong Museum Society Limited will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 7 June 2023, at the Drake Gallery, 1/F, Fung Ping Shan Building, University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 94 Bonham Road, Hong Kong. 

After the Annual General Meeting, we are pleased to present a lecture and guided tour with Dr Shuo Hua, curator of Re-visiting 20^th Century Chinese Oil Paintings, an exhibition sponsored by the HKUMS 30^th Anniversary Endowment Fund.  This will be followed by dinner at the Ming Pavilion, Senior Common Room, 14/F, KK Leung Building.

Across Time and Space:  Re-visiting Twentieth-Century Chinese Oil Paintings  
This talk will shed light on twentieth-century Chinese oil paintings currently on view in the UMAG’s latest exhibition, revealing the art historical and cultural significance of this important medium.  Dr Hua will discuss how oil painting evolved from a non-indigenous medium when it first entered Chinese art academies in the early twentieth century to an important and increasingly popular channel for artists to explore cross-cultural dynamics and individual forms of expression. The talk will explore new ways of looking at and appreciating Chinese oil paintings through the works of iconic painting masters and influential art educators within the narratives of art history.

Speaker
Dr Hua received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD from the University of Hong Kong.  She was a visiting PhD fellow at the Cluster of Global Art History, University of Heidelberg.  Her research centres on modern East Asian paintings, art market studies and exhibition history in a cross-cultural context.

Image: 
Liu Haisu (1896-1994), Sunflowers, oil on canvas, 1963, Gift of the artist, collection of UMAG, HKU.P.1997.1145

The HKU Museum Society is pleased to present a guided visit to Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong with Mary Zhang, Fair Manager for Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong.

The annual Affordable Art Fair (AAF) is celebrating their 10^th Anniversary at their 2023 fair. AFF has been active in promoting local art and providing a platform for local art lovers to discover new and emerging Hong Kong artists and their thought-provoking works. 

Join us for a personal introduction and overview to the upcoming art fair ahead of its opening to the general public. And get ready to browse a wide array of inspiring, cutting-edge artworks from around the world.

2023 marks Sotheby’s 50th anniversary in Asia, a milestone for which Sotheby’s will launch a year-long campaign of extraordinary exhibitions, events, and auctions in Hong Kong and beyond. Headlining the Contemporary auctions are a masterwork by Yoshimoto Nara, In The Milky Lake, as well as works from Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Alexander Calder, Huang Yuxing, Hao Liang, and many more.

Please join us on a guided viewing of the Contemporary works of art, as Sotheby’s unveils its Spring auctions and spearheads its year extraordinaire. The tour will be presented by Ms. Florence Ho, Head of Day & Online Sales, Contemporary Art.

 

Photo Credit:
Yoshitomo Nara, In the Milky Lake, 2012
Courtesy of Sotheby’s 

The HKU Museum Society is pleased to present an artist talk with Chinese national treasure Zhang XiaoDong and guided viewing of Zhang’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong: Flow.

This exhibition will showcase Zhang’s internationally acclaimed works Dragon scale binding “Diamond Sutra in 32 zhuan (seal) fonts” and “Dream of The Red Chamber” in Accordion-Dragon scale binding, there will also be 4 works that were never-before-exhibited that signposted the transformation and breakthrough in Zhang’s artistic career.

As the successor of the intangible cultural heritage Dragon scale binding and inventor of Accordion-Dragon scale binding, Zhang XiaoDong steadily created 8 binding works. From the Buddhist classics Diamond Sutra and Heart Sutra to “Dream of The Red Chamber” and “Poetry & Calligraphy of Mao Zedong” etc, Zhang brought the Dragon scale binding that budded in Tang, bloomed in Song and revived in the modern days to an international stage, and had his solo exhibition in the La Biennale di Venezia as a guest artist.

The curator of this exhibition — Sin Sin Man— put the focus on Zhang’s enlightenment of the heart and his inheritance of old to develop the new in his contemporary works. Zhang’s binding works are exquisite and demand great patience and self-cultivation for their making. The 4 new works are the extensions of the artist’s personal work “Thousand Pages” series, using tension-filled visuals and details that are intricate yet orderly, he leads the audiences into his world, voyaging through the abstract and the figurative, the intervention and the laissez-faire.

 

Photo credit:
Dragon scale binding “Diamond Sutra in 32 zhuan (seal) fonts”
Courtesy of Sin Sin Fine Art