CUHK
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The Art Institute of Chicago has joined forces with The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) to co-present an exhibition of the legendary Hong Kong artist Lui Shou-kwan (1919 – 1975). The exhibition Ink Play: Paintings by Lui Shou-kwan, at the Art Institute of Chicago, opened on 14 April 2023, will run until 16 July 2023. CUHK Art Museum Director Professor Josh Yiu is the co-curator of the exhibition, and some of Lui’s artworks have been selected from the Art Museum of CUHK for the exhibition.

As the first retrospective of the pioneering Chinese ink artist in a major American museum, which has a renowned collection of modern art that covers all major European and American movements of the 20th century, Ink Play: Paintings by Lui Shou-kwan provides an alternative narrative concerning the development of modern art that is couched in Chinese aesthetics and philosophy.
Featuring 37 works dated from 1957 – 1974, a prolific period for the artist that led to multiple solo exhibitions in Britain and group exhibitions in other countries, the exhibition presents Lui Shou-kwan’s imaginative depictions of Hong Kong, reinterpretations of classical masterpieces and meditative Zen paintings. Seen together with masterpieces by Cézanne, Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso, Magritte, Pollock, de Kooning, Clyfford Still, and other influential artists whose works are housed by this 143-year-old museum, the exhibition prompts meaningful dialogue and visual comparisons between Chinese and Western modernism. “This presentation in the United States will bring his still-relevant work to a new generation,” noted Dr Tao Wang, Pritzker Chair of the Arts of Asia at the Art Institute of Chicago, the co-curator of the exhibition.

Lui’s works are best known for using the pictorial language of dots, lines and planes in ink for expressive purposes. Commenting on the Zen series of paintings, exhibition co-curator and CUHK Art Museum Director Prof Josh Yiu said, “Lui Shou-kwan’s masterful brushwork brings out the nuanced tonal variations in ink, and the non-figurative compositions are particularly conducive to a meditative reading.”

Having influenced generations of modern artists in Hong Kong and beyond, Lui Shou-kwan has become a focal point of art historical studies and exhibitions in recent years. A retrospective exhibition at the National Art Museum of China in 2018 revealed his impact on mainland Chinese artists. The current exhibition in Chicago demonstrates Hong Kong’s full-fledged emergence as an international art hub, and it marks the commitment of CUHK, which celebrates the university’s 60th anniversary this year, to promoting the arts through academic collaborations worldwide.

Support for this exhibition is provided by Alisan Fine Arts, American Friends of the Shanghai Museum, the family of Lui Shou-kwan, Lawrence Chu, Whang Shang Ying, Jerry Yang, and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York.

Details of the Exhibition

Please visit the exhibition webpage for more information. 

Images in this press release can be downloaded from https://bit.ly/442rpqq