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More than 200 paintings of the ¡§Two Jus¡¨ selected from museums locally and in Guangdong will be on display at the Hong Kong Museum of Art from tomorrow (October 31) to February 1, 2009.
The exhibition, ¡§Strolling in the Fragrant Garden: Paintings of Ju Chao and Ju Lian¡¨, is jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) and Guangzhou Municipal Cultural Bureau, co-organised by the Hong Kong Museum of Art and Guangzhou Museum of Art. Participating museums include Guangdong Provincial Museum, Dongguan Municipal Museum, Keyuan Museum of Dongguan, and Art Museum of The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the exhibition today (October 30), the Assistant Director (Heritage and Museums) of the Leisure and Cultural Services, Dr Louis Ng Chi-wa, said Ju Chao and Ju Lian were significant artists of the late Qing dynasty in the history of Guangdong painting. The exhibition, which is organised with the Guangzhou Museum of Art, presents a fine selection of the two Jus¡¦ works from public collections in Guangdong and Hong Kong and provides a rare opportunity to review their artistic accomplishments and mark the 180th anniversary of Ju Lian¡¦s birth.
¡§The LCSD has had collaboration with Guangzhou Museum of Art previously in presenting several exhibitions, such as ¡§Exhibition to Commemorate the 100th Birthday of Chao Shao-an¡¨, ¡§Hong Kong International Poster Triennial Travelling Exhibition¡¨. These exhibitions demonstrate a close connection in art and culture between Guangdong and Hong Kong in the past and present. The current exhibition also provides an opportunity of collaboration among the cultural institutes in these two places and fosters cultural interflow in the Pearl River Delta,¡¨ Dr Ng said.
Known as the ¡§Two Jus¡¨, the cousins Ju Chao (1811 ¡V 1865) and Ju Lian (1828 ¡V 1904) were natives of Guangdong, where their forefathers established home in Geshan, Panyu (modern Guangzhou), after migrating from Jiangsu. Because of their close relationship, they shared the same origins in painting and same stylistics.
While serving in the private secretariat of Zhang Jingxiu (1824 ¡V 1864) in Guangxi, the ¡§Two Jus¡¨ learned the art under Song Guangbao and Meng Jinyi (both active circa the mid-19th century) and sought to emulate Chen Chun (1483-1544) of the Ming dynasty and Yun Shouping (1633-1690) of the Qing dynasty in bird-and-flower painting. They were deeply inspired by the ¡§boneless¡¨ style practiced by the two earlier masters in still life paintings.
As professed in his inscriptions, Ju Chao prized formal likeness in still life painting. This belief of his found precedent and consolidation in the meticulously realistic birds-and-flowers paintings of the Song dynasty that he studied closely. Ju Lian followed his cousin¡¦s example to study and observe the plants, birds and insects that he was to paint.
As for techniques, the Two Jus strove to build on Yun Shouping¡¦s ¡§boneless¡¨ style. While Yun was known for using a fully soaked brush to mix water and colour well, the cousins went a step further and invented the ingenious water infusion and powder infusion methods. The result brings out most convincingly the tonal gradation, light and shade and the turgidity of the subjects and has proved to be a technique most suited for depicting the plants and insects found in Lingnan, or Guangdong, area.
To the Two Jus, their hometown was central to their art. The microcosmic world inhabited by plants, birds, fishes and insects indigenous to the Pearl Delta where they called home makes up the bulk of their extant small paintings. These gifts from Nature provided the Two Jus with their preferred subjects. The vitality radiating from their compositions is often highlighted by the presence of small insects like bees, butterflies, dragonflies, katydids and mantises.
Ke and Daosheng Gardens, built by Zhang Jingxiu, featured prominently in the Two Jus¡¦ artistic career. The garden not only witnessed Ju Chao¡¦s many literary gatherings with other men of letters but also the making of many of his masterpieces. After Ju Lian returned to Geshan in Guangzhou with his cousin Ju Chao, he built the Garden of Ten Fragrances and began his professional career in painting by giving painting lessons in the garden for 40 years until his death.
Of the two cousins, Ju Lian had trained more students in painting. Among them, Gao Jianfu (1879 ¡V 1951) and Chen Shuren (1884 ¡V 1948) went to Japan in search for a catalyst to rejuvenate Chinese painting and eventually became the founding fathers of the Lingnan School of Painting. In this context, Ju Lian should perhaps be credited for sowing the seeds in the then aspiring reformists.
To tie in with the exhibition, a series of lectures will be organised on November 1, 15 and 29 from 2.30pm to 4.30pm. Entitled ¡§Rural Painting by Ju Chao and Ju Lian¡¨, ¡§Anecdotes of Ju Chao and Ju Lian¡¨ and ¡§From the two Jus¡¦ Studio to their Works¡¨, these lectures will be given respectively by the Deputy Director of Guangzhou Museum of Art, Ms Chen Ying, the Doctoral candidate of the Institute of Ancient Chinese Document, Zhongshan University, Mr Liang Jiyong, and the Curator (Xubaizhai) of Hong Kong Museum of Art, Mr Szeto Yuen-kit. Conducted in Cantonese, the lectures are free and 150 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. On Christmas Eve and Chinese New Year¡¦s Eve, the museum will close at 5pm. It is closed on Thursdays (except public holidays) and the first two days of Chinese New Year. 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 http://hk.art.museum/.
Ends/Thursday, October 30, 2008
Issued at HKT 18:00
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