Hong Kong Central

Before I left Taos, Jan Mellor had given the name of a travel writer, Andrew Leung, who lives in Hong Kong. Andrew had visited and written about Taos last year. I was staying in Kowloon, which is immediately north the main Hong Kong Island where Andrew lives. I had emailed him a couple of times and hadn't heard anything so guessed he must have been away on assignment. As it turned out, he had been away, but got it touch with me two days before I was scheduled to go to Singapore. Andrew offered to meet with me and give me a tour of Central.

Most of the art scene in Hong Kong is on the island. There were a lot of galleries here, so I spent the morning exploring them before meeting with Andrew. For the most part, the galleries were carrying work of living artists from Asia. What was the surprise here? I could have been in Taos or New York or London or Osaka. While there may have been some slight differences of style, it is apparent that artists around the world are producing work that is emerging from the same set of influences.
This is unlike the wood block prints of Takeshi Uemura or the brushwork of Yang Shen-sum, which come from different and unique traditions. And, unfortunately, it appears that in the process many of the fundamentals of art have been lost or forgotten. It was a good thing I met later with Andrew.




Andrew met me at the Fringe Club, a center for artists and the arts. He lead us on a walk at a quick clip in the afternoon heat of Hong Kong around the back roads to the out-of-the-way fruit stalls and antique dealers. The whole way Andrew gave me a short history of Hong Kong. Finally, we stopped for a glass of yin yeung, an iced drink of coffee and tea (really good) before we headed off to the University of Hong Kong Museum.

I had thought we were just going to see the collection at the Museum, which contained a fair amount of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints. What I had not expected was to be introduced to the curator of the Museum, Ms. Tina Yee-wan Pang. Tina and I chatted about the exhibitions she curates and what she likes in art. It was good to hear about her very high standard for the quality of the shows. Catalogues from the exhibits contained work that showed a depth of knowledge of painting. In particular, one recent show was of paintings from artists at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, the premier art school in China. The school is a bus ride away from Shanghai where I will be on the next part of the trip. Visiting the school is now top of my list of places while there.

A big thanks to Jan, Andrew and Tina.


Next: The City of Singapore

Visit to Hong Kong and the Art of Yang Shen-sum

Hong Kong is another city with incessant activity. The streets are constantly filled with taxis, buses and people from all over the world. The difference here, like other cities I have visited so far on this journey, is a certain sense of calmness. People appear to be not so driven to get somewhere and walk around in a more casual pace. For me, it made being in the city more tolerable.

The first art museum I visited here was the Hong Kong Museum of Art. A significant portion of their collection was of ceramics and carved objects. The quality level of the work was very high, even for objects more than two thousand years old.

The great discovery for me, however, was on the top floor. The galleries here had many examples of traditional and contemporary brush painting. One painter of note was Yang Shen-sum who passed away this past May. The museum had put together a fairly large collection of his work and it was worthwhile to see.




Even better than the paintings, however, was a DVD showing Shen-sum at work. For me, it was thought-provoking to see his use of the brush. His whole approach appeared to be more about letting the brush do more of the work and letting his hand be the guide. This approach allowed for very fluid brushwork with terrific variety of edges, shapes and value. Watching Shen-sum paint was so useful, that I came back the next day to watch again. Later, I spoke with Jennifer Chu Shui-ping, a curator at the museum, who put me in touch with the person who made the DVD. So, I had the good fortune to buy a copy the day I left Hong Kong!


Next: HK island visit with Andrew Leung