As I was staying in Sheung Wan’s district in Hong Kong, decided as part of my learning journey in ink to take a trip to visit the gallery at Hong Kong University’s Museum and Art Gallery. After a short tram ride from where I stayed, I decided to walk up the steep hill (Bonham Street) towards the gallery. It was there that I chanced upon the founder of the place, a philanthropist Mr. Fung Ping Shan (1986-1931) who donated money to build a Chinese library amongst contributions to society.
(photo credit: http://lib.hku.hk/hkul100/ic/FPSbook.html) This book is available at the bookstore in the university museum.
After a good half hour or so of reading, I started my gallery tour. I was fortunate to see the first solo exhibition “Hong Kong by Guo Zhiquan- Cityscapes in Ink 墨韵城市：郭志全在香港” of Mr Guo Zhiquan (b 1942) in HK. I like the way he uses ink, contemporary color and brush strokes to capture the sights and sounds of Hong Kong.
“Mr Goh is a member of the Henan Artists Association, the Chinese Academy of Poetry, Painting and Calligraphy, and he is affiliated with the Ministry of Culture as well as the East & West Artists Association. He worked as the Dean of Fine Arts Dept of Luoyang University in 1986 where he specialised in landscape paintings, as well as bird-and-flower work and art criticism.” – abstract taken from the Foreword by Dr Florian Knothe, Director, University Museum and Art Gallery, KHU.
Here are some snapshots of his pieces at the exhibition. I was intrigued by how he combines the western idea of perspective with big, bold Chinese ink brush strokes.
Nestorian Bronze Crosses of the Yuan dynasty …an interesting mix of Swastika and Cross!
