Chan Shing Kau – Inherrting an institutional language of “original Hong Kong aesthetics” by Vincent Lee 28th November, 2011
In the 21st century, the fine-art circuit in Hong Kong is noted by the prior importance of solidifying a unique language for its local painting culture.
Both the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the academia recognize a fact that, the Modern Chinese-Ink Painting demonstrates the global art scene with the most “original” perspective of Hong Kong creativity. Thus, it can be regarded as the most “legitimate” form of Hong Kong art under a basis of Sino-Western cultural interactions. The Modern Chinese-ink Painting emerged while Lu Shoukun (呂壽琨) was initiating a “New Chinese-Ink Movement” (新水墨畫運動) during his capacity as a Chinese-painting instructor in the Extramural Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Lu Shoukun fostered a group of apprentices who showcased courage in transcending the limitations of traditional literati paintings. Since the 1960s, Lu’s apprentices, namely Ng Yiu-chung (吳耀忠), Wucius Wong (王無邪), Leung Kui-ting (梁巨廷), Kan Tai-keung (靳埭強) and so forth, united as progressive intellectuals to re-interpret the methodologies of Chinese-ink infiltration with reference to the geometrical and symmetrical emphasis of graphic-design theories.
At that time, Liu Guosong (劉國松), as a Taiwanese art master, came to Hong Kong and corresponded with Lu Shoukun’s mission to promote Modernism with Chinese-ink aesthetics. Chan Shing-kau (陳成球) is one of Liu Guosong’s devoted apprentices, who is much affected by Liu’s favor in adopting “paper-tearing” (撕紙) and “water-rubbing” (水拓) techniques as a way to recompose the fragmented illusions of natural landscapes. Chan Shing-kau realized that, the Taiwan art culture accommodated various sorts of liberal-minded art styles from Southeast Asia and the West, whereas the so-called “right-wing” cultural and ideological elements could be applied to enrich the system of Hong Kong Ink Paintings with vivid expressionistic contexts. Bearing in mind with Liu Guosong’s guidance, Chan Shing-kau openly accepts watercolor and dissolved acrylic as complements to regulate the moisturized Chinese ink. He lays stress on a harmonious coexistence among various kinds of “hydraulic paints” once recognizing a fact that they can be equivalently absorbed by xuanzhi paper (宣紙), mulberry paper (桑皮紙), mazhi paper (麻紙), synthetic-fiber paper (人造纖維紙), cotton cloth (棉布) and other types of two-dimensional Chinese mediums.
Chan Shing-kau upholds a new concept that, the Chinese ink can be regarded as a kind of chrominance, or to say, a kind of “pigment” for highlighting the vitality of our secularity and ecology. Chan Shing-kau and his fellow Chinese-ink painters in Hong Kong made a wide range of experimental effects by a fully pledged manifestation on the inter-relationship among paper, brush and ink. A kind reference was made on the seven kinds of Chinese-ink applications advocated by Huang Binhong (黃賓虹), which were, condensed ink (濃墨法), paled ink (淡墨法), cleaved ink (破墨法), sprinkled ink (潑墨法), soaked ink (漬墨法), scorched ink (焦墨法) and shrunk ink (宿墨法). For the use of new textural strokes, apart from following his old acquaintances to pursue “pearl” strokes (珍珠皴), “leaf vein” strokes (葉脈皴), “fish net” strokes (漁網皴), “shifting sand” strokes (流沙皴) and “ripple” strokes (波紋皴), Chan Shing-kau attempt to enrich the methodologies by inventing the “plucking sinew and peeling skin” strokes (抽筋剝皮皴), “white linear as a substitute to black linear” (以白線代替黑線), and “white linear for a production of tensions”(白線產出張力). Liu Guosong, his master, endeavored for his art creations during the period that the United States accomplished its mission in sending astronauts, like Neil Armstrong, to reach the space and explore the noumenon of moon. Getting admired with the scientific achievements of the Americans, Liu Guosong guided Chan Shing-kau to withdraw from the “scholarly-liked” restricted eyesight on our Nature and re-explore the virtues of this Universe based on the Western mode of rational philosophy. Since then, Chan adapts to foster inspirations related to the idea of eternity given by our Creator. Even though Chan’s description on mountainous landscapes reflects a self-expressive mode of liberation from the ancient doctrines, we can still comprehend Chan’s nationalistic sentiments due to his persisting efforts in making the Western visual elements conciliate with the harmonious norm of Confucian-Taoist culture. Up to now, his Chinese-ink pieces reserve an appropriate scale of spatial distributions, and he enables ink strokes to interlace as decorative patterns.
Indeed, Chan Shing-kau encourages the younger generation to remold the “self-images” of their Chinese-ink paintings with compositional innovations. In 2010, corresponding with Liu Guosong’s ongoing efforts in conducting Modern Ink seminars in various institutes and academies of Mainland China, Chan Shing-kau found the “Contemporary Innovative Ink Painting Association” (當代創意水墨畫會) and united a group of Chinese-ink enthusiasts for organizing a persisting series of joint exhibitions. The establishment of “Contemporary Innovative Ink Painting Association” further acknowledges those who honor “traveling spirits”, as Chan Shing-kau conveys “self-expressiveness” and “leisure” as two important criterions for making Modern Ink Painting emerge as an orthodox institution in the fine-art circuit of Hong Kong.
Recently, Chan Shing-kau concentrates on portraying climatic, atmospheric and hydraulic transformations during the seasonal changes. He dares to constitute fogs, mists, smog and dew as the major substances in his imaginative landscapes. Putting aside the centralized use of brush forces (中鋒), Chan Shing-kau adopts a huge portion of moisture to create washing effects for the piecemeal ink drops that are mixed with color pigments. Being successful in presenting art lovers with the vision of immensity and tranquility, Chan Shing-kau accomplishes the goal of pursuing a utopian realm of internalized enhancements with Zen philosophy as a guiding code.
Author: Vincent LEE Kwun-leung (李冠良)
(Declaration of Interests: I am the Art Officer from the Art Of Nature International Company Limited. The Art Of Nature establishes its exhibition booth in the 4th Cross-Strait Xiamen Cultural Industries Fair between 28 and 31 October 2011. Chan Shing-kau is a participating artist in this event, and I possess the ultimate right to write about the creative ideas of Chan Shing-kau’s paintings based on his first-hand interpretations.)