Families
Art At Home LIVE | Lui Shou Kwan
Mon Dec 21, 2020 | 1 PM
Vancouver Art Gallery
Image: Lui Shou Kwan, Untitled, 1965 (detail), ink, watercolour on paper, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of Alice, Helen and Anne Lui, VAG 2020.22.8
Monday, December 21 | 1 PM
“I do not paint abstract paintings because of some awareness of a School of Abstract painting. I paint in accordance with the Chinese philosophy of art, which stresses expression of the individual mind and nature of the artist.” – Lui Shou Kwan
Let’s make Art At Home!
Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations.
In this session of Art At Home Live, Family Programs Coordinator Christina Jones will be joined by artist and teacher Jeannie (Lou) Lee to consider mindful art practices and share the incredible life and work of artist Lui Shou Kwan [呂壽琨] .
Combining his deep knowledge of ancient Chinese ink painting with ideas of abstraction, Lui Shou Kwan created new ways of using ink to express his awareness of the present moment.
Together, we’ll begin to develop our own mindful painting practice through looking and learning about the materials and processes used within Chinese ink painting, introduced and demonstrated by Jennie Lou Lee.
See Lui’s work from the Gallery’s collection now on view in the exhibition Uncommon Language.
This digital program is designed for kids aged 5 to 12 and their families, but we welcome the participation of all ages and abilities.
Get involved! Submit questions as a family during the Zoom presentation using the Q&A function. You can also engage with your fellow attendees and host during the event using the Chat function.
New to Zoom? Learn how to register and attend a webinar here »
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in Guangzhou, China, Lui Shou Kwan [呂壽琨] (1919–1975) was a renowned brush painter in the traditional and modern styles of Chinese ink painting. Today, he is widely recognized as the founder of the New Ink Movement, which became a driving force for the transformation of traditional Chinese ink art and landscape painting—the impacts of which can be felt to this day.
In 1948, Lui moved to Hong Kong, where he remained until his passing in 1975. Relying on traditional techniques and aesthetics as the basis for his art, he was determined to bring Chinese painting into dialogue with modernist movements dominant in Europe and North America. Though his style underwent a drastic change during the 1960s, he remained faithful to traditional media—paper, brush and ink. His goal was to create a new visual language rooted in Chinese aesthetic traditions but at the same time emphatically modern, an artistic expression that could effectively reflect the hybridity of Lui’s adopted city of Hong Kong.
Lui’s Zen Painting series from the 1960s is considered a highlight of his career. Characterized by their bold calligraphic and ink-wash mark making, rendered with wide brush strokes and depicting symbolic Zen Buddhist motifs such as the lotus flower, these works blur the ancient and the modern, the abstract and the representational, shared spirituality and individual expression.