Chan Chiu Lung: The Light of Colours

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Sun Museum is pleased to present “The Light of Colours by Chan Chiu Lung”. The exhibition is the largest selection of works by renowned oil painter Chan Chiu Lung since 2003, showcasing a total of 80 works from four categories: portraits, nudes, still lifes and landscapes.

Aged 82, Chan Chiu Lung is famous for his portraits of Chinese and foreign people and is among the few classical realist oil painters in Hong Kong. He started painting at the age of 16, and studied art under Liu Xingyuan from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Inspired by the works of masters when traveling in Europe, Chan has developed a distinctive style of his own that blends Russian Realism and European Impressionism.

Women from different origins including Hong Kong, Guizhou, Tibet, and India in their respective costumes form the focus of Chan’s portraits. As to nude paintings, he is proficient at capturing various effects of light and shadows that uncloak the sense of beauty of the figure. His landscapes depict a variety of locations, ranging from the streets and alleys of Hong Kong, farmhouses in northern Shaanxi, Mainland China, the Ganges River in India to St. Petersburg in Russia. His still- life paintings, especially those of flowers, are rich in vibrancy, specificity and liveliness. With painting skills based on a solid foundation of study, Chan creates landscapes and still lifes that are unique in composition, sophisticated in colour, and delicate in roughness. By narrowing the foreground of the work and extending the road or scenery beyond the canvas, he takes viewers closer to the picture and invites them to step into the scene.

Mr Yeung Chun Tong, Director of Sun Museum, said, “Chan Chiu Lung is strongly influenced by the realist tradition as well as the social climate of the time. He strives to paint figuratively rather than idealistically; to present subject matters that are real as opposed to imaginary scenes. He heavily employs impressionist techniques and manipulates light to render textures and depth. From portraits and nudes, to still lifes and landscapes, he illustrates the adorable world of mankind with unmistakable candor and sincerity. This exhibition thus offers a precious opportunity to appreciate a comprehensive body of works by this veteran oil painter.“

In addition, Sun Museum is delighted to present “Eco-friendly Lifestyle: Winning Artworks of Surein Foundation Competition”, an exhibition organised in collaboration with the Surein Foundation. To arouse the awareness on “protecting the environment, reducing waste at source, sorting wastes for recycling, and building a green community”, the Surein Foundation organised a drawing and colouring competition in the summer of 2021, receiving nearly 950 entries. 42 works of First, Second, Third and Merit prizes from the public sector, kindergarten children and parents, primary, and secondary school students are on display at the exhibition.