Tour: The Art of Ding Yanyong with Professor Mayching Kao in Cantonese

It is a rare privilege for members to have Professor Mayching Kao as our guide
at the exhibition No Frontiers: the Art of Ding Yanyong, which is being held at the Hong Kong Museum of Art from 19 December 2008 to 5 April 2009. This tour with Professor Kao is organized as a continuance of her lecture the day before on 10 January 2009. View,experience and enjoy the selection of Ding Yanyong’s ink and oil paintings from the collection of the Ding family as well as from various private collectors and institutions.

Ding Yanyong was born in the Guangdong province of China in 1902. Between
1919 and 1925, he studied modern art at the Tokyo College of Fine Arts and was particularly attracted to the works of Matisse and the Fauves. Although at first he studied oil painting, Ding subsequently turned to traditional Chinese painting. Ding’s unique style is perhaps best expressed in his paintings of animals, legends and opera singers. He brought his subjects to life with precise execution and his unparalleled mastery of the ink and brush.

Ding settled in Hong Kong in 1949. In 1956, he helped found a special art course at the New Asia College, the precursor of the Department of Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he taught until his passing in 1978.

Among the works on loan being shown at Master Ding’s retrospective at the Hong
Kong Museum of Art will be the following two paintings that the HKU Museum Society donated to UMAG in 1997.