M+ Matters:
Cantonese Art and Plural Modernities
M+ Matters:
Cantonese Art and Plural Modernities
Why did Guangdong artists establish some of the most radical news pictorials in China in the early 20th century? How did they adapt the elegant poetics of Chinese painting to represent the realities of modern warfare or to satirise society? How do their innovations continue to shape the way we see?
This public symposium will shed new light on Guangdong's distinctive contributions to Chinese artistic modernism and its place within the current discourses of regional and multiple modernities. Leading experts from universities and museums in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen will consider such topics as the varieties of realism in 20th-century Guangdong painting; the social circulation of images, especially pictorials, woodblock prints, and cartoons; and the propagation of the Lingnan School in Hong Kong and the Cantonese diaspora. The symposium will be conducted in Cantonese and Mandarin, with simultaneous interpretation available in English.
Ongoing since 2012, M+ Matters is a series of public talks and discussions exploring critical issues with key players in the fields of visual art, design and architecture, and moving image with both professionals and members of the general public. Past topics in the series include postwar design and industry in Asia, contemporary ink art, China’s museum boom, and global museums’ collection and display strategies.
Huang Shaoqiang, Beggar (detail), 1930s. Ink and colour on paper. Collection of Han Mo Xuan, Hong Kong. Image courtesy of Han Mo Xuan
Guan Shanyue, Dujiangyan, 1941. Collection of Guan Shanyue Art Museum. Image courtesy of Guan Shanyue Art Museum
Fang Rending, Mother and Child in the Rain, 1932. Ink and colour on paper. M K Lau Collection, Hong Kong. Image courtesy of M K Lau Collection, Hong Kong
Guan Shanyue's Chinese calligraphy demonstration in the Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, May, 1980. Image courtesy of the Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
News Illustration about the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 (detail), Shishi huabao (Current Affairs Pictorial), issue 9, 1906. Collection of Han Mo Xuan, Hong Kong. Image courtesy of Han Mo Xuan
Zhao Shou, Faces, 1934, oil on canvas. Collection of the Guangzhou Art Museum. Image courtesy of the Guangzhou Art Museum
Liao Bingxiong, The Technique Must Be So, 1957, print. Collection of the Guangzhou Art Museum. Image courtesy of the Guangzhou Art Museum
Situ Qiao, Hunger, 1946, pastel on paper. Collection of the Guangzhou Art Museum. Image courtesy of the Guangzhou Art Museum
Gao Jianfu, Flying in the Rain, 1932, hanging scroll, ink and colour on paper. Photo courtesy of Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Li Hua, Raging Tide Series no. 3: Press Gang of Able-Bodied Men, 1947. Woodblock Print, Set of 4. ‘Hanart 100’ Collection. Image Courtesy of Hanart TZ Gallery
About the Speakers
Image at top: Fang Rending. Mother and Son in the Rain, 1932. Ink and colour on paper. Photo: Courtesy of M K Lau Collection, Hong Kong.