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

Here comes the Cobra!

The "Cobra" currently shown at the Museum of Art has nothing to do with the poisonous snake. It is in fact the name of an art movement initiated by European avant-garde artists.

The word "Cobra" is an anagram formed from the initial letters of the European capitals - Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. It represents the blending of individual components into one single entity.

The Movement, active from 1948 to 1951, was an important art movement after the Second World War. It was formed by a group of artists mainly from Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The artists gathered at the back-room of a Paris cafe near Notre Dame in November 1948 and started the Movement then.

With inspiration from primitive art and drawings by children and the mentally deranged, the Cobra artists sought to liberate art from the norms of Western tradition.

As Corneille, a well-known Cobra artist, put it well, "'Cobra' is a vital cry - a bright splash of colour in all its force - as if the hand of the artist was crying out against the formalism which holds it a prisoner¡K¡K".

Officiating at the opening ceremony of "The Cobra Movement - 50 Years" exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Art today (Thursday), the Provisional Urban Council Chairman, Dr Ronald Leung Ding-bong, said that the Cobra artists' ideas were enshrined in a manifesto, and the artists shared the same social commitment in the hope of popularizing art.

"I hope the purity, primitiveness and expressiveness intrinsic in the art of the Cobra artists can enrich our citizens' perception of art and inspire our local artists," Dr Leung said.

Also officiating at today's opening ceremony are the world - renowned collector of Cobra art and owner of the exhibits, Mr Karel Van Stuijvenberg; the Consul General of Belgium, Ms Godelieve Van Den Bergh; the Consul General of Denmark, Mr Jens Peder Jensen; and the Consul General of the Netherlands, Mr Jochum S. Haakma.

Presented by the Provisional Urban Council and the Consulates General of Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands of Hong Kong, the exhibition features 74 items of painting and sculpture selected from the Cobra Museum for Modern Art in Amstelveen, the Netherlands.

The exhibition will open to public from tomorrow until April 11, 1999.

A fully illustrated catalogue which provides detailed information on the exhibition will be on sale at the Museum's gift shop. Members of the public are welcome to visit the Museum's website at http://www.usd.gov.hk/hkma/ to browse the unique Cobra art.

The Hong Kong Museum of Art is located at 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. The Museum opens from 10 am to 6 pm from Monday to Saturday, and from 1 pm to 6 pm on Sundays and public holidays.

The Museum closes on Thursdays and the first two days of the Lunar New Year (Feb 16 and Feb 17). On Lunar New Year's Eve (Feb 15), the Museum will close at 5 pm.

As the third day of the Lunar New Year (Feb 18) this year falls on the weekly closing day of the Museum of Art, the Museum will be closed on that day.

Admission fee is $10, with half-price concessions for senior citizens, people with disabilities and full-time-students. Admission on Wednesdays is free. For enquiries, please call 2734-2167.

End/Thursday, February 4, 1999

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