Date: Saturday, 10 June 2006
Time: 3:00 pm Place: Fung Ping Shan Gallery, UMAG
Cost: $120 members, $180 non-members, free for students with valid IDs
Few prominent research scholars of our time are also recognized for their artistic achievements. Professor Wan Qingli is one such rarity. Born in Beijing in 1945, he studied painting from the masters Lu Yanshao (1909 -1993) and Li Keran (1907 -1989). During the Cultural Revolution, Wan was imprisoned with Li and many others in a make-shift prison known as niupeng (ox-shed) in Beijing. Despite this, he graduated from the Department of Art History of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1968 and completed a Masters degree at the Academy’s Department of Chinese Painting in 1981. Wan obtained his PhD degree from the University of Kansas, USA, in 1989 and has since taught at the Department of Fine Arts, The University of Hong Kong. He is currently the Honorary Director of the Academy of Visual Arts of the Hong Kong Baptist University. Wan is a leading Chinese art historian with over 15 books and 120 journal articles to his name.
This exhibition features 28 of Wan’s recent works in brush and ink, including a large scale 15-panel painting from 2003 entitled In the Middle of the Song No One is in Sight. Wan’s landscape paintings clearly reflect his profound understanding and appreciation of tradition as well as his ability to transform tradition into his own particular language of expression. These works, while being firmly grounded in the study of antiquity, explore the artist’s personal vision. Other works depicting animals and plants, framed with satirical inscriptions that comment upon contemporary life, reveal the sense of humour for which Wan is well-known.
Professor Wan will personally conduct a guided tour of his exhibition on Saturday, 10 June 2006 at 3:00 pm for members.
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