China Daily (Hong Kong)

HK’s largest Chinese ink painting exhibition opens

- By DARA WANG and NORA ZHENG in Hong Kong Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn Contact the writers at dara@chinadaily­hk.com PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

The city’s largest exhibition of Chinese ink paintings will be unveiled on today (Friday). Selected from 1,500 artworks, Ink Global presents 500 masterpiec­es by artists from 15 countries and regions at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

He Jiaying’s Autumn is estimated to have the highest value, HK$30 million, among all the exhibits. His work depicts a girl wearing a white sweater meditating under a tree in fall.

He told China Daily he uses the embossed painting technique, an ancient Chinese method that highlights the details of the knit. People can see the coarse surface of the sweater, said He, who wants to encourage viewers to look closely at his work.

Pigment suffuses every corner of He’s painting without leaving any blanks. The purplish sky surrounds the girl sitting on high ground without any gap. He said it is very uncommon to leave no blanks in a Chinese ink painting. In this way, He said he wanted to redefine the space and inspire people to reimagine the relationsh­ip of the sky and the ground.

Exhibition Curator Kwok Ho-mun said it is the first time animals are included as a major theme in the exhibition of modern Chinese ink paintings. Traditiona­l ink painting only has landscape, portraits, and birds and entire 19th century is gathered in one focal point.

This indicates that the opera was a turning point in Western performing arts.

“Everything comes together in opera — ballet, poem, drama and theater,” says Trelinsky in Beijing.

Tristan und Isolde is a “revolution” because after this opera, Western composers changed their approach to the art form, he says.

In most operas and musicals, it is very clear when an aria, duet, chorus, overture, or other ensemble ends, but Wagner blurred these Titus

The show sees the Shandong Acrobatic Troupe and the China Arts Entertainm­ent Group put through their paces by choreograp­her Patti Colombo and director Shanda Sawyer.

he Shanghai Theater Academy will put on an experiment­al Peking Opera adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s oneact play The Fools at Grassmarke­t.

Shenzhen musicians’ collective the Alliance Art Group will put on New City New Sound, a crossover concert that mixes Chinese folk with world music, at the Royal Terrace on Sunday and Monday.

The Zhuo Pei Li Cantonese Opera Workshop takes its adaptation of “The Scottish Play”, Shakespear­e’s Macbeth, to the New Town Theatre on Monday and Tuesday.

The Shaanxi Performing Arts Centre’s Treasure Trove of Shadows follows the rugged life of a Chinese puppet master during World War II. It runs from Aug 20-28 at C Venues. flowers as the themes.

Huang Jiongqing’s painting Mother and Son, featur- boundaries.

Trelinsky says that unlike in many other romantic stories, in which lovers want to live together, the main characters of the opera’s story hoped to be united in death.

“Falling in love for them was like poison. But this opera shows that love can be as strong as death,” he says.

The director gives a contempora­ry flavor to the stage and costume designs.

“Although it’s complicate­d and difficult to understand, the audience will be impressed by this masterpiec­e, which presents a cine- ing horses, expresses the joy and pride of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland. matic feeling,” says Trelinsky.

In March 2016, a version of the opera, produced by the Metropolit­an Opera, Teatr Wielki-Polish National Opera and Festspielh­aus BadenBaden Opera premiered at the Festspielh­aus Baden-Baden, one of Germany’s largest opera and concert houses. It was staged in Warsaw and New York in June and September last year.

American tenor Jay Hunter Morris plays the role of Tristan, with Danish soprano Ann Petersen as Isolde.

“Of all the blessings in my life, my wife, my children and The horse is often used as a symbol of success and pleasure in Chinese culture. In Huang’s painting a colt (young male horse), having endured suffering, returns to the warm embrace of his mother and regains support and comfort. Here Huang borrows a Chinese idiom of success being attained upon the arrival of a horse to commemorat­e the 20 th anniversar­y of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland.

Other highlights include Hibiscus Picking by Huang Yongyu, 93, the oldest painter to participat­e in the Ink Global show. With stroke texture and bright colors, the flowers look more energetic under Wong’s paint brush.

Kwok said with a high everything, one of the greatest joys is that I can stay in this business long enough to play the role of Tristan,” says Morris, who is known for his performanc­e in the Metropolit­an Opera’s 2011–12 series of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

“He (Tristan) is the opposite of who I am. It’s quite challengin­g to play him,” Morris says of the sadness of the character.

“The music is so beautiful and emotionall­y challengin­g (for the tenor).” standards, the exhibition will be a milestone in the history of Chinese ink painting. “We are reaching the second-highest peak in Chinese ink painting’s history after the Song D ynasty (960–1279),” Kwok said.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Jao Tsung-i, a world renowned scholar on traditiona­l Chinese culture, will visit the exhibition on Saturday. Other guests i nclude lawmakers, senior officials promoting culture, arts, youth education and renowned painters.

The exhibition will be open from today (Friday) to Tuesday. Andronicus­2.0.

performs on stage during a production of

 ?? PARKER ZHENG / CHINA DAILY ?? A visitor appreciate­s a crane and lotus painting at the Ink Global art exhibition at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Thursday. The exhibition opens to the public from today (Friday) until noon on Tuesday.
PARKER ZHENG / CHINA DAILY A visitor appreciate­s a crane and lotus painting at the Ink Global art exhibition at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Thursday. The exhibition opens to the public from today (Friday) until noon on Tuesday.
 ??  ?? An actor
An actor

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