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The Art Museum at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the Department of Fine Arts, CUHK jointly present the exhibition The Bei Shan Tang Legacy: Chinese Painting from 21 September to 15 December 2019. The exhibition features 120 ancient Chinese paintings donated or lent to the museum by the Bei Shan Tang. Covering a wide array of subjects including landscapes, bird-and-flower, religion, portraits, lady figures, and works of Yangzhou, Guangdong and women painters, the exhibition showcases the fine artistry and diverse styles of Chinese painting from the Song to the Qing dynasty. Members of the public are welcome to visit the exhibition. Admission is free.

The opening ceremony for the exhibition was held today (20 September). The officiating guests included Dr. Chien LEE, Chairman of the Bei Shan Tang Foundation, Prof. Rocky S. TUAN, Vice-Chancellor and President, CUHK, Prof. Harold MOK, Emeritus Professor, Department of Fine Arts, CUHK, Mr. Christopher MOK, Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Art Museum, CUHK, Prof. LAI Chi Tim, Acting Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies, CUHK, Prof. YIU Chun Chong Josh, Director of the Art Museum, CUHK, and Dr. HO Ka Yi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Fine Arts, CUHK and curator of the exhibition.

In the exhibition, rare landscape pieces such as Pavilion against Distant Mountains, the only extant work of the Yuan painter Tao Xuan, are exhibited alongside works by masters like Dai Jin, Wen Boren, Dong Qichang and Wu Bin. Lent by the Bei Shan Tang, the flower-and-bird painting Shepherding attributed to Qi Xu represents the pastoral theme prevalent in the Song dynasty as well as the auspicious motif of plum and bamboo. While Immortal with Deer by the Ming Zhe School artist Zhang Lu offers a great sample of religious painting, Wang Shizhen Composing Poems and Admiring Plum Blossoms (anon.) is a telling piece of figure painting’s achievement in the early Qing dynasty and the lady figures can be viewed as the embodiment of literati and popular feminine ideals of the time. For regional paintings, the Bamboo and Rocks, a Yangzhou painting by Zheng Banqiao, has formed one of the major collections of the Art Museum since 1970s. Magnificent Vista by Yan Zong is a rare piece of early Ming Guangdong painting. Works by gentry women and courtesan painters such as Ma Shouzhen, Wen Chu and Xing Cijing are also among the exhibits. 

Bei Shan Tang has been the Art Museum’s important donor since its establishment in 1970s. This exhibition is a new addition to our The Bei Shan Tang Legacy series after Chinese calligraphy, zisha stoneware, stele inscriptions and ink rubbings, which fuels in-depth research on Chinese art. To share the Art Museum’s research output, a catalogue penned jointly by students and teachers of the Department of Fine Arts, CUHK is launched and available to the public. 

The Bei Shan Tang Legacy: Chinese Painting symposium will be held on 19 October 2019, with distinguished speakers sharing their views on Chinese art. The Art Museum also organizes guided tours for the public, encouraging more people to learn about the selected Chinese paintings in the exhibition through engrossing activities. Please go to the website below for more details.
http://www.artmuseum.cuhk.edu.hk/en/training/current/

Details of the exhibition are as follows:

Attachment:  Highlighted exhibits