Every adult has a child inside and every child has an adult facet. Artist Tang Zhigang understands and sees this in his observation of life, which is reflected in his satirical melodrama oil paintings. As one of the top Chinese contemporary artists, Tang’s paintings capture the attention of international auction houses and are priced in the seven figures range.
Like fellow painter Zhang Xiaogang, Tang originates from Yunnan. He was raised in a military family and became a soldier in the People’s Liberation Army in 1976. As he loved to paint since he was a child, he was naturally placed in charge of propaganda paintings and teaching art to children of the Cadre Academy. This may be why children with political backdrops are his favourite subjects.
Tang graduated from the PLA Institute of Fine Arts and pursued advanced studies in the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Currently, he is a teacher of oil painting at the Yunnan Institute of Fine Arts as well as the Chairman of Oil Painting Society of Yunnan. With studios in Kunming and Beijing, he has held numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide.
With an increasing importance in the international art arena, what will the future of Chinese contemporary oil painting hold? Tang will share his insider's view on this and more. Discussions are welcome.
This artist talk is a unique opportunity for members and students to meet the master painter during Tang's brief visit to Hong Kong. It is made possible with the help of the Museum Society's member Dora Wu, a native of Yunnan and a devoted promoter of art, culture and education.
The HKU Museum Society is proud to sponsor an academic art conference, A Connective History of Qing Art – Visuality, Images and Imaginaries, organized by the HKU Fine Arts Department to be held at the University. All members and guests with interest are welcome to attend the conference. For details, please contact Dr. Yeewan Koon at
[email protected].
About the Conference
A group of international scholars from the United States, Canada, Europe, Taiwan and China will assemble to present papers on issues related to ways of looking, depicting and writing about art and images in and of the Qing period.
The participants bring to the table diversity in research interests, methodological orientation, and primary source materials that provide an overall connective history of Qing art. They will examine relationships between court art and non-court culture, spatial and regional differences, vernacularism and urban culture, and the processes of co-opting and incorporating visual data. More specifically, there will be papers on the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, the representations of Beijing under Qianlong's rule, images of urban life and popular culture in Shanghai and Guangdong, topography and geography in landscape paintings, and how Qing art history was written in Republican China. Given the importance of inter-regionalism and global encounters in Qing history, this conference will bring art history into dialogue with many other relevant research topics and intersect with the growing interest in exhibitions on Qing art, including the forthcoming exhibition in Hong Kong on Qianlong's private garden.
For further information on the participants and their papers, a website has been dedicated to the project http://finearts.hku.hk/Qing2012 .
Non-Qing art specialists are encouraged to join in our discussions and the conference will be open to anyone interested in Qing art, including students, scholars, and members of the University of Hong Kong Museum Society. The aim is to enrich and diversify our conversations in a collegial atmosphere. An edited volume of the papers will follow this conference, testifying to the sustained engagement and collaboration of this exciting field of inquiry.
Mankind aspires to move up to Heaven. He is earthbound and the fast track way to Heaven is through flight. Western culture equips fliers with wings as in angels. This concept was fed into the Greco-Roman aesthetics of Gandhara in Bactria, and thence to Indian Buddhism, and from there to China.
Buddhist human form cultural fliers are depicted wingless, but Chinese jade fliers include both winged specimens in human only form, and in combined human and bird form in the Kinnara. Shamanism in China as elsewhere, acclaims and worships the flight of birds which closely adopt human attributes and are represented in a Buddhistically inspired form of anthropomorphic birdlike jade headdress ornaments. The focus of both Buddhist and Shamanistic flight persons spans a period of perhaps 1200 years from 200 A.D. to 1400 A.D., and the history of the development of flight in Buddhist iconography and Shamanistic ritual is traced over this period by reference to actual examples in jade.
Speaker
Our speaker, Angus Forsyth, is a long-standing member and the Honorary Legal Advisor of the Museum Society. A long-term resident of Hong Kong, he is a keen scholar on all aspects of Chinese jade from Neolithic period to the Qing dynasty, and a published writer on Chinese jade of all periods.
We are delighted to present a guided tour of UMAG's exhibition, Monochrome Wares from the Song to the Yuan dynasties (宋金元朝的單色釉瓷), with UMAG Director Yeung Chun-tong (楊春棠). Yeung obtained his BA and MPhil from HKU and has worked at UMAG for 35 years. He is Honorary Associate Professor in the Fine Arts Department of HKU, teaching Chinese Material Culture and Museum Studies.
About the Exhibition
Monochrome Wares from the Song to the Yuan dynasties 宋金元朝的單色釉瓷 (24 May to 25 November 2012)
The Song dynasty (960 – 1279) is an important period in art history that saw a breakthrough in ceramic production. It was during this time that a number of famous kilns were established in different parts of China. The products from each kiln demonstrated a style of their own. Some of their innovative traditions were passed on to the Yuan dynasty (1271 – 1368). Evidently, the monochromes made in these two dynasties are the result of a highly sophisticated ceramic technology.
The exhibition brings together 120 representative works selected from seven private collections as well as the University Museum collection. They were produced by the well-known kilns in Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces. All show rich variations of white, blue, green and black glaze colours. Most of them are displayed to the public for the first time. A fully illustrated catalogue will be published.
The attractiveness of Song dynasty ceramics lies in its elegant forms and sophisticated colours, all achieved by new methods of manufacture. Its high workmanship was affected by the religious thinking of the literati as well as the artistic tastes of the imperial household.
This talk relates the ceramic styles to the living styles of the Song dynasty. The change of living conditions or environments may be a key factor for the change of forms and colours of utensils used in daily life.
Speaker
The HKU Museum Society and the Oriental Ceramics Society jointly present this talk by Yeung Chun-tong, Director of The University Museum and Art Gallery. Director Yeung obtained his BA and MPhil from HKU, and has worked at UMAG for 35 years. He is Honorary Associate Professor in the Fine Arts Department of HKU, teaching Chinese Material Culture and Museum Studies.
Christie's will hold its 2012 Spring Auction at Convention Hall, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 25 to 30 May 2012. Their specialists, Pola Antebi and Rosemary Scott will guide us on a tour to view the exquisite Chinese Works of Art objects featured this season. Highlights will include two pairs of cloisonné enamel animals – one of elephants and one of peacocks; as well as a magnificent blue and white mandarin duck charger.
Speakers
Pola Antebi joined Christie's Hong Kong in 1990. Since 2000, she has been the Department Head of the Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art in Hong Kong, which has grown exponentially under her leadership. She was instrumental in garnering some of the most prestigious private collections offered at Christie's HK sales. Her areas of expertise include imperial ceramics, jades and works of art from the Yuan to the Qing periods. Antebi holds degrees in French Literature and Art History from the University of Vermont in the United States.
Rosemary Scott is Christie's International Academic Director of Asian Art, instrumental in expanding Christie's educational programs in Asian art, lecturing and conducting scholarly research for Christie's Asian art sales worldwide. She holds an honors degree in Chinese Art and Archaeology from the University of London. Her career has spanned various important positions in her chosen field, including deputy keeper of the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, with curatorial responsibility for Oriental art; the curator of the Percival David Foundation, University of London; and head of the Museums Department of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Scott is also past president of the London Oriental Ceramic Society.
Auction houses have played an increasingly important role with the upsurge in the art market. Art trends have appeared, changed or shifted in dynamic ways. Supply and demand, collectors’ taste, galleries’ and dealers’ preference, rise of new talents, technology outburst, global economy and media’s attention have all contributed to create this vibrant phenomenon. François Curiel, President of Christie’s Asia, will talk with us about the international art market, with special emphasis on the Asian market.
Speaker
Born in France in 1948, François Curiel began his career at Christie’s as a jewellery specialist in London in 1969. After working in Madrid, Paris and Geneva, he moved to New York in 1977 to launch their jewellery department. In 1989, he returned to Europe as Managing Director and worldwide Head of Jewellery. In 1998, he was appointed Chairman of Christie’s Europe and in 2001, he took over the rein of Christie’s France, while maintaining his other responsibilities. In January 2010, he was appointed President of Christie’s in Asia, based in Hong Kong, and one of the seven executives to lead the Group International Management Team.
In 1996, the Diamond High Council in Belgium awarded François Curiel the prestigious Antwerp Diamond Career Award, given to fewer than ten personalities in the world. From 2001 to 2009, the French Minister of Justice nominated him to join the French Market Auction Authority, the regulatory body overseeing the auction system in France. In 2009, he received France’s most prestigious distinction when he was promoted Officer of the Legion of Honour. Often described in the press as one of the greatest auctioneers of our time, he regularly holds the hammer for sales in Europe, Asia and America. Most recently, he was the auctioneer for Elizabeth Taylor’s important estate jewellery.
This year, Hong Kong International Art Fair 2012 is produced in collaboration with Art Basel and will take place from 17-20 May 2012 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. In just a few years, ART HK has positioned itself as a key fixture on the international art calendar. It is now the leading platform for international, modern and contemporary art in Asia, bringing together collectors, curators, artists and galleries from Asia and the rest of the world.
The Fair welcomes 266 of the world's leading galleries from 38 different countries. Many will be found in the main Galleries Section. The Fair will also present Asia One, a section dedicated to galleries which will individually show solo presentations of Asian artists who are creating interesting works. In addition, the Fair will feature Art Futures, a section for galleries established after 2004 to showcase artists 35 years of age or younger. All promise to provide visitors a unique opportunity to experience the latest developments in cutting-edge art.
Art professionals from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Hong Kong will be our guides. Following the tour, participants are free to stay on for other programs or explore further at your own pace.
For the latest updates, please visit www.hongkongartfair.com
Bonhams spring auctions include a diverse range of ceramics and works of art, reflecting the artistic brilliance of China's long history. This guided preview by Julian King will primarily focus on the section of Yixing stoneware teapots and teawares from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Gerard Hawthorn. It will be complemented by an additional collection of teapots, most of which have been published and exhibited in the National Museum of History, Taipei.
Highlights from this exhibition will include a number of Yixing stoneware teapots potted by prominent Yixing masters from the late Ming dynasty to the modern period – an appliqué-decorated teapot mounted with a metal spout and wood handle, signed by the Yixing master Chen Tingsheng; a fine teapot incised with a scholar's poem, produced by the Jiaqing master Shao Youlan; a teapot of archaistic form, signed by the Kangxi master Hua Fengxiang; and a scholar's object made by Jiang Rong, a descendent of the prominent Republican masters Jiang Yeting and Xu Xiutang. There are also examples of teawares produced from other materials, including an early Qing dynasty bamboo teapot of exceptional quality, comparable to the finest examples from the Imperial collection.
Bonhams spring auctions will also include snuff bottles produced in the palace workshops in the Qianlong period from the Mary and George Bloch, Part V collection; an outstanding large cloisonné enamel incense burner and cover from the Qianlong period, the other of a pair to one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and a Hongwu copper-red bowl from the George Eumorfopoulos collection.
Julian King is the Head of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art in Bonhams Hong Kong. King read Classical and Modern Chinese at Wadham College, Oxford, working as a Chinese art specialist in London from 2000 to 2008 before taking up the position in Hong Kong. He has developed the Hong Kong market by focusing on specialised single owner sales of snuff bottles, soapstones, Yixing stoneware and seal carving.
2013 will mark the 25th anniversary of the HKU Museum Society. The Executive Committee is planning a series of interesting fundraising activities to celebrate this wonderful milestone. With our members' appreciation for fine dining with friends, we have invited a few famous hosts in Hong Kong who are connoisseurs of gourmet food and elegant living, to host private home-cooked dinners for our members. The first of this series of private dining soirees will be at the elegant home of Joseph Fung, a long-standing member and generous supporter of the Museum Society.
Known to his friend as Joe, Joseph is the director of his architectural and architectural interiors consultancy firm SP2. He is a well-known gourmand and bon viveur. Joe is a classic car enthusiast and champions local contemporary artists. (Hong Kong Tatler)
We are honoured that Joe will open his home for this fundraising dinner exclusively for 10 people. Specially selected wines will complement the surprise seasonal menu personally designed by our host. With his scintillating personality, this promises to be an exciting evening indeed.
