Guided Viewing: Intimate Encounters: Handscrolls and Albums from the M K Lau Collection with Catherine Maudsley
The M K Lau Collection, one of Asia’s finest private collections of 20th century brush and ink paintings is presenting “Intimate Encounters: Handscrolls and Albums from the M K Lau Collection” to showcase over 40 works that have rarely been shown to the public. The collection of world-class pieces by pre-eminent Chinese masters including Wu Changshuo, Wu Hufan, Pu Ru, Zhang Daqian and Lu Yanshao, embody the creative spirit and versatility of ink art over centuries.
These works are intimate and participatory formats of Chinese ink art – handscrolls are unrolled from right to left on a table, section by section, inviting the viewers to take an interactive journey, while albums are a group of distinct artworks brought together in a cohesive book form. The works will engage the viewer with a sense of surprise, discovery and excitement.
The show is a testament not only to the connoisseurship and scholarship of the M K Lau Collection, but also to the rich and endless stylistic variations of handscrolls and albums, encouraging visitors to immerse and appreciate art away from our contemporary culture of the instantaneous, returning instead to the leisurely enjoyment endowed upon art making and collecting in traditional times.
Resource Person
The HKUMS is delighted to present this guided tour with Catherine Maudsley, the Curator and Senior Advisor of the M K Lau Collection. Catherine is a Hong Kong-based art historian, art consultant, curator, educator and writer. A multiple award winner, she was a Connaught Research Scholar at the University of Toronto, a Canada-China Scholar in Beijing and a Commonwealth Scholar in Hong Kong. She has published and lectured extensively on Asian art and culture. She has taught at the Department of Fine Arts, The University of Hong Kong and has served on the Executive Committees of the University of Hong Kong Museum Society and the Hong Kong Oriental Ceramic Society and is a Council Member of the Hong Kong Art School.