Mastering Masterpieces: The Essentials of Chinese Landscape Paintings

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Communing with nature is of primary importance in Chinese culture. Wandering in the wilds looking for a spiritual home. However, it is easier said than done to escape from mundanity in busy life. To offer a solution, ancient Chinese artists came up with the idea of “landscapes for wandering in while reclining indoors”. By immersing oneself in landscape painting, one could enjoy the pleasures of travelling without even leaving home.

HKMoA use technology as the key to unlock the secrets of the masters of Chinese landscape paintings and open up paths to the appreciation of the traditional. Through multiple immersive and interactive digital experiences, traditional landscape paintings are no longer bounded by 2D format, the visitors will submerge into the world of Chinese landscapes. Visitors can also create their unique digital artworks and see how they compare with the ancient masters.

The exhibition is divided into two parts. In the first part, eight landscape paintings are displayed to explore how landscape has developed into an extraordinary theme in the Chinese painting history. The second part is laid out around six fundaments, namely poeticism and lyricism, devising placement, texturing and brushwork, depiction of form, variations of ink and colour and reinvention of the past, where visitors can grab a taste of the captivating spirit of Chinese landscape painting.

This exhibition presents traditional Chinese art with modern technology to give visitors a new view of Chinese landscape painting, using various immersive projections as well as sound and visual installations. Through technology, visitors can transpose themselves to the painted world where they can experience the poeticism and lyricism of the changing season and explore different ink and brush techniques that are infused with personal and even epochal ethos.