A brush with history
Exhibition celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland invites creators from all over the country to offer an aesthetic vision of the Greater Bay Area, Lin Qi reports.
TThe mountain and the strength it represents are still treasures to the city today, and will remain so in the future.”
he Lion Rock mountain, located between Kowloon and the New Territories, stands not only as one of the most famous scenic spots in Hong Kong. It has also become a spiritual symbol representing the unremitting efforts of ordinary Hong Kong residents to live a better life.
This attribution owes thanks to
Below the Lion Rock, a TV show which began broadcasting in the 1970s, and which, over five seasons, depicted the lives of people in Hong Kong. Its eponymous theme song has profound resonance among listeners and is recognized as a classic piece of 20thcentury Hong Kong pop music.
The Lion Rock spirit keeps inspiring generations of Hong Kong people, and has also deeply touched those outside, such as Cui Xiaodong, an ink artist and director of the Yan Huang Art Museum in Beijing.
“The grand scene and celebrations of Hong Kong's return to the motherland in 1997 are still vivid in my mind,” he says.
Cui created Lion Rock in Hong Kong, a colored ink painting in the mountain-and-water style of classic Chinese painting. It is now on show at
Greater Bay Area in the Eyes of Artists, an exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is being held at the National Museum of China through to Saturday.
In his painting, made earlier this year, Cui depicts the cliffs of the Lion Rock, surrounded by blooming trees and overlooking the city's skyscrapers, as the rosy morning glows in the far sky to add romanticism to the composition.
“The mountain stands like a giant, embodying the industrious and unyielding spirit which has pulled people in Hong Kong together through hard times,” Cui says.
“It is a recollection of the youth and vigor of a generation of people in Hong Kong who strove to make the city what it is today. The mountain and the strength it represents are still treasures to the city today, and will remain so in the future.”
The exhibition gathers artists from across the country, many based in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and shows more than 116 Chinese ink paintings, oil paintings, prints, watercolors, sculptures and mixed-media works.
It hails the natural beauty and ecological diversity of the area, as well as the construction of its signature projects, vibrant metropolitan life and diverse cultures. It also presents to the audience historic events and reformative accomplishments since 1997, such as the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, mainland Olympic medalists visiting Hong Kong, the
CNS Liaoning aircraft carrier sailing into Hong Kong waters and the opening of the Hong Kong Palace Museum. They are being portrayed in realistic strokes, while rendering a romantic sensibility.
Historic narratives, nostalgic feelings and everyday warmth are entwined at this exhibition. In her work titled The Smell of Hong Kong, Han Mei from Beijing pays tribute to the city's world-renowned reputation as a “heaven for foodies” by painting an array of its signature dishes and snacks, as well as signboards of gourmet restaurants to reflect the city's culinary art of combining Chinese and international flavors. Han says culinary culture has played a vital role in Hong Kong's development, and her work echoes the feeling of food lovers in Hong Kong that the dinners they have are never the same.
The China Artists Association is responsible for the organizing and selection of artworks on show. Its chairman Fan Di'an says the exhibition provides “a panoramic view of the Greater Bay Area in an all-encompassing way, including the depth of its history, the magnificence of the mountains and waters, the richness of its culture and the creativity and endeavoring spirit of its people”.
He says the exhibition will also inspire further exchanges and cooperation between artists in the mainland and in Hong Kong and Macao, to produce more works which cater to people's cultural needs.
The exhibition will also tour Hong Kong, Macao and Shenzhen, Guangdong province.
Cui Xiaodong, ink artist