Six Hong Kong Visual Artists and Their Artistic Adaptation in the Post- New Ink Movement Era in Hong Kong

The proposed project aims to investigate the development of local art via case studies of six Hong Kong artists who had their artistic developments nurtured during and after the significant New Ink art movement in the 1960s.

In the 1960s, Lu Shoukun launched the “New Ink Movement”. He believed that by combining the artistic development and technology in the West with the spiritual temperament and ink brush strokes of the Chinese tradition, one could create new visual experience that will be regarded as “Hong Kong art”. He regarded the artistic attempt as an important form of existential “adaptation” of local painters living in the ex-colony which should originate from artists’ self-understanding.

The project intends to investigate Lu’s notion of “adaptation” in the visual arts of Leung Kui Ting 梁巨廷, Aser But畢子融, Kan Tai Keung 靳埭強, Choi Yan Chi 蔡仞姿, Lui Chun Kwong呂振光 and Kong Kai Ming江啟明. Leung, But and Kan were active during the New Ink Movement and were under the influence of Lu. Choi, Lui and Kong were individual artists who followed their own artistic directions in the post-New Ink era. Though they are making visual arts in various forms and media, they have been pushing forward important artistic innovations as forms of “adaptation” that Lu suggested. They are involved in a liberation process in the colonial territory that emerged during the period of significatory or representational undecidability in Hong Kong in the 1970s.

The study aims to fill a chapter in the Hong Kong visual art history which reviews the revelation of the New Ink Movement and the artistic attempts of representative Hong Kong artists after the significant movement. It recognizes their contributions to the multiplicity of visual art styles in Hong Kong and reviews their own artistic “adaptation” against the social and cultural backgrounds of the colonial Hong Kong in the 1970s. It then critically reviews current discourses on Hong Kong art with the empirical findings of the project.

This is an interdisciplinary research using methods of interview, oral history, art analysis and critical practice. It utilizes theories of art history, aesthetics, social studies and post- colonial studies. The research outcomes of the project will be presented in both local and international conferences and published in reputable academic venues.