Hong kong’s ink pioneer:
LUI SHOU-KWAN

Lui Shou-kwan (1919-1975) was one of the most significant artists in Hong Kong during the second half of the 20th century.

Recognized for his uniquely experimental approach, Lui is credited with expanding the tradition of Chinese painting by incorporating bold, gestural and abstract mark-making. (1) It was through this development of artistic language that he arrived at his most notable and unique form of Zen painting - an amalgamation of both allegorical and abstracted imagery. The resulting work traverses a fine line between representation and bold, pure mark-making, connecting traditional Chinese guohua practice with a more modern, international aesthetic.

Read the full article “Hong Kong’s Ink Pioneer: a Discussion of the Work of Lui Shou-kwan”

Lui earned his bachelor’s degree in economics at the Guangzhou University immediately after the Second World War. (2) In 1948 during a period of great political upheaval and social unrest, Lui Shou-kwan and his family moved to Hong Kong ahead of China’s ensuing Cultural Revolution.

Here, while working for the Yaumatei Ferry Company, Lui Shou-kwan initially took greatest inspiration from the surrounding landscape of mountains and sea views. However, it is more often written that Lui’s work was born out of his exposure to and knowledge of Western painters such as Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell. (3)

In Hong Kong he is regularly credited with fusing the two dominant streams of Chinese and Western art. (4) Certainly he travelled widely to gain further understanding and influence for his paintings from the West. But to situate his work in a global canon, one in which it is understood predominantly in terms of its relationship to the modern art of the West, is to ignore the social-historical reality of its making and the view that ‘art, tradition, modern or contemporary should be considered primarily within its own historical context.’ (5)

Hong Kong art of this time was not simply being addressed to a local audience, but to an audience in the process of recognising its own autonomy. Lui’s art participated in the desire to affirm Hong Kong identity and even to some extent helped to give birth to it. (6) As he said himself;

References

1 Whittaker, Alexander – Pavilion Gallery online publication, artist’s page – Lui Shou-kwan, accessed 10/4/21

2 Lai, Eliza – Lui Shou-kwan and the New Ink Movement in Hong Kong https://aaa.org.hk/en/ideas/ideas/shortlist-lui-shou-kwan-and-thenew-ink-painting-movement-in-hong-kong, accessed 10/4/21

3 Yiu, Josh Yiu, Josh – Preface to Two Masters, Two Generations and One Vision for Modern Chinese Painting. Paintings by Gao jianfu (1879-1951) and Lui Shou-Kwan (1919-1975) in The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The University of Oxford

4 Glauert, Rik – Indelible Influence, Tatler, Hong Kong, Art / Life, September 2015, http://www.alisan.com.hk/en/press.php, accessed 10/4/21

5 Silbergeld, Jerome - Modernization, Periodization, Canonization in Twentieth Century Chinese Painting, Seattle Art Museum, p15

6 Clarke, David – The Culture of a Border Within: Hong Kong Art and China, Art Journal, Summer 2000, Vol 59, No. 2 (Summer 2000)

* Yiu, Josh Lui Shou-kwan’s Study of Classical Paintings - Yiu himself notes that “a hand-written copy of the article is preserved in the Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Further research is needed to determine whether or when and where the article is first published.”