Event: Grotto Master Series: Ding Yanyong (1902-78) & Lu Shoukun (1919-75) Works from a Private Collection

Date: November 21 - December 1, 2001

Grotto Master Series presents the finest collection of paintings by established masters. The works of Ding Yanyong and Lu Shoukun, the two most influential artists of their generation, will for the first time feature side by side to demonstrate how Chinese ink and brush painting can be interpreted in modern visual vocabulary and viewed under contemporary context.

Ding Yanyong's legacy as an artist started in the early 20th century. A student of Western art in 1920's, Ding went to Tokyo to study modern art and was particularly attracted to the works of Matisse and the Fauves. In 1949, Ding settled in Hong Kong and began his career painting classical Chinese genres. Ding's works combined expressive brushwork and precise execution, and they have a unique ability to bring life to the subject. Ding's unique style is perhaps best portrayed in his paintings of animals, legends and opera singers wherein his unparallel mastery of the Chinese ink and brush and humor lies.

Lu Shoukun is one of the most important artists in Hong Kong. He was the main driving force in the development of modern art in the 1960's and 70's. As founder of the influential New Ink Movement, Lu's teaching and theory successfully generated a new style combining traditional Chinese and modern Western elements. His famous Zen painting, which embodies calligraphic and Abstract expressionist features, became an indigenous Hong Kong style and represents an artistic and theoretic solution to the rejuvenation of classical Chinese art.