Guided Viewing: “Enduring Strength and Passion: The Chinese and Western Art of Ting Yin Yung” with Dr. Sarah Ng (Members Only)

The HKU Museum Society is pleased to organize a guided viewing of Enduring Strength and Passion: The Chinese and Western Art of Ting Yin Yung, a retrospective of Master Ting’s multifaceted work in commemoration of his 120th anniversary, presented with support from the HKUMS 30th Anniversary Endowment Fund. The tour will be guided by Dr Sarah Ng, Curator of this exhibition.

A native of Maoming county in Guangdong province, Ting Yin Yung (1902–1978) studied Western painting in Tokyo at the Kawabata Painting School in 1920, and at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. He returned to Mainland China in 1925 and emigrated to Hong Kong in 1949, where he developed his artistic practice as a painter, seal carver and greatly admired teacher.

Ting’s painterly styles vary widely, as he worked in both oil and ink. He excelled at figure paintings, and his landscape paintings and still lifes were stylistically influenced by both European Modernism and Chinese ink paintings. He consistently aimed to reconcile the techniques and characteristics of Western and Eastern approaches.

Originally trained in Western methods, Ting became increasingly interested in Chinese ink painting. A great admirer of Ming and Qing dynasty paintings, Ting’s artistic style is noteworthy for its simplicity, which is indicative of a departure from his predecessors’ realistic representations. His use of line, void and space exemplifies his contribution to the formulation of a modern Chinese style that was in part informed by his study of ancient oracle bone scripts, and also emerged in parallel with his oil paintings beginning in the 1960s. Master Ting was equally known for his use of personal seals that illustrate an abstract language of their own and established Ting as a prolific and distinctive seal carver.

Speaker

Dr. Sarah Ng is a historian of visual arts and material culture specializing in late imperial Chinese painting, calligraphy and ink rubbings. She is the curator of the Hong Kong University Museum & Art Gallery (UMAG). The relationship and reinterpretation of the Chinese tradition in contemporary art practice is her primary area of scholarly interest. Her work also addresses collecting, connoisseurship, canon formation, workshop practices, art conservation, museum studies and bookplates. She lectures on these subjects and other areas of expertise internationally.

Image: Sai Kung Seaside, Courtesy of UMAG