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The following is issued on behalf of the Provisional Urban Council:

An exhibition featuring renowned American painter Roy Lichtenstein's series of "Landscapes in the Chinese Style" created in 1996 and 1997 was opened today (Monday) at the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

These landscapes were presented with the artist's typical mechanical technique and the use of Benday dots, said Provisional Urban Councillor Miss Annie Wu Suk-ching.

"The works by the late master Roy is in essence paying homage to the art of Chinese landscape painting," she said.

"Roy Lichtenstein was born in 1923 and was one of the leading artists of the Pop Art movement that began in the United States in the 1950s."

Like many European modernists and masters such as Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Miro who drew inspirations from different sources, Roy also developed his own approach in artistic creation.

He chose popular subject matters of common images of everyday life in America, such as comic strips, billboards and commercial products and presented them in another art medium reflecting popular artistic visions.

"Roy Lichtenstein began his landscape painting in 1964," Miss Wu continued. "He tried to remove forms from real life and present them in a more simplified and abstract version, and used dots and lines to reinterpret the landscapes into a machine liked printed matter," said Miss Wu.

"In 1994, he visited Degas' landscape monotypes and pastels exhibition. The symbolic treatment of images and colours in the works have greatly aroused Roy's interest in traditional Chinese landscape painting.

"Capturing the essence of classic Song Dynasty landscapes, Roy created his distinctive landscapes in Chinese style."

She added that Lichtenstein's new artistic approach had demonstrated the successful interaction of different art forms.

By using his trade-mark style in a new manner to capture the magical effects of classic Chinese landscapes, Roy Lichtenstein has added his own provocative modern statement to that ongoing dialogue.

The artist himself once confirmed that the paintings in his series "Landscapes in the Chinese Style" contain an element of humor. As he said, "I think they impress people with having somewhat the same kind of mystery the Chinese paintings have, but in my mind it's a sort of pseudo-contemplative or mechanical subtlety...I'm not seriously doing a kind of Zen-like salute to the beauty of nature. It's really supposed to look like a printed version."

The "Roy Lichtenstein-Landscapes in Chinese Style" exhibition, presented by the Provisional Urban Council and supported by the Consulate General of the United States of America in Hong Kong, will be held until July 19.

Admission to the Hong Kong Museum of Art is $10. Half-fare concession is provided for full-time students, the disabled and senior citizens. Wednesdays are free.

End/Monday, May 18, 1998

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