*****************************************************
"A Eulogy of Hong Kong Landscape in Painting: The Art of Huang Bore", featuring some 200 works on the beauty of Hong Kong's landscape in the 1950s and 1960s, will be held at the Hong Kong Museum of Art from today (June 20) to October 9.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the exhibition today, the Director of Leisure and Cultural Services, Mr Thomas Chow, said Huang Bore had a profound relationship with the Hong Kong Museum of Art. In 1962, Huang was invited to be an honorary advisor of the City Museum and Art Gallery, which became the Hong Kong Museum of Art, with the objective of collecting Guangdong art and artifacts. After he died in 1968, his family fulfilled his wish to donate his collection of works of Guangdong masters to help build up the museum's collection.
"This year marks the 40th anniversary of Mr Huang's departure and we are honoured to be the beneficiary of Huang's paintings of Hong Kong donated by his sons Mr Wong Tai Shing and Mr Huang Dade, who have also loaned scores of paintings of Hong Kong landscapes to make this exhibition possible.
"This exhibition is not only to pay homage to the painting master but also offers our visitors an opportunity to relish the beautiful scenery of old Hong Kong and have a better understanding of the accomplishments of Hong Kong artists," Mr Chow said.
Although born in Dongguan and brought up in Guangzhou, Huang Bore (1901-1968) spent the better part of his life in Hong Kong. In 1923, at age 22, he joined the traditionalist camp of Zhao Haogong, Pan He and others in the Guihai Painting Cooperative. When the cooperative was expanded in 1925 to become the Guangdong Painting Research Society , the largest art group in southern China, he was already a key member and even engaged Gao Jianfu's students in a series of debates in the press.
In 1926, Huang arrived in Hong Kong and founded the Hong Kong Branch of the Guangdong Painting Research Society together with Pan Dawei, Deng Erya and other artists relocated from Guangdong in an attempt to kindle painting interest in Hong Kong. From then on, Huang became a regular traveller between the two places. In 1940, he helped the Fung Ping Shan Library of The University of Hong Kong organise the "Guangdong Heritage Exhibition". The largest of its kind in Hong Kong, the exhibition was a shining example of his many contributions towards the cultural scene in early Hong Kong.
In 1949, Huang came to Hong Kong again and stayed until he passed away in 1968. During that period, he continued to be actively involved in the organisation of dozens of exhibitions. Besides being a member of the Yuan Painting Society, the Ping Sheng Art Club and the Gengzi Calligraphy and Painting Society, he also wrote for a number of newspapers, including the "Sing Tao Daily", "Wah Kiu Yat Po" and "Ta Kung Pao". From the early 1950s, he went hiking with the Yung Sheh Hiking Club to the remotest spots of Hong Kong, taking in the views and capturing them in paint.
In 1960, he held his only solo exhibition "Paintings of Hong Kong" and became one of the first painters to dedicate himself to the depiction of local scenes. Like Lˆ¢ Shoukun, Lin Jiantong, He Qiyuan and Peng Ximing, Huang developed an attachment to his new home and began expressing his feelings for the territory in multifarious representations of local landscapes.
His contribution to the reformation of traditional Chinese painting and his place in the history of art in modern China were further recognised at a high-level conference held by the China Artists' Association to coincide with the exhibition "The World of Wong Po-yeh" at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing in 1997.
To tie in with "A Eulogy of Hong Kong Landscape in Painting: The Art of Huang Bore", a gallery talk will be held on June 21 from 2.30pm to 4.30pm by Mr Wong Tai Sing and Mr Huang Dade. The talk will be in Cantonese. Payment of an admission fee to the museum is required for the talk and 40 seats are available on a first-come-first-served basis. In addition, a fully illustrated catalogue will be published and available at the Gift Shop of the Museum of Art.
The Museum of Art is located at 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. It opens from 10am to 6pm from Sunday to Wednesday and Fridays, and from 10am to 8pm on Saturdays. It is closed on Thursdays (except public holidays). Admission is $10 and a half-price concession is available to full-time students, senior citizens and people with disabilities. Admission is free on Wednesdays.
For enquiries, call 2721 0116 or visit the Museum of Art's website at http://hk.art.museum/.
Ends/Friday, June 20, 2008
Issued at HKT 18:30
NNNN
