Wu Guanzhong (1919 – 2010) once said, “Music, of all the arts, is held in the highest regard.” To him, the persuasion of vibrancy, rhythm or even the poetic state which resulted from the shifting changes from purely aesthetics pursuit to focusing on visual representation is now an indispensable part of art. Titled “Wu Guanzhong: Painting·Dance·Music”, this exhibition emphasised on the configuration between the movement, rhythm and emptiness that characterize Wu Guanzhong’s paintings in the use of visual elements such as dots, lines and cubes. Selected from the collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, this exhibition features more than 20 works, including the celebrated trilogy (namely Two Swallows, Former Residence of Qiu Jin and Reminiscence of Jiangnan), Wind from the Sea, Leaving Youth Behind, The Easterly Breeze Blows Open the Wisteria and so on.

Mending Nets, 2009; oil on canvas, donated by Mr. Wu Guanzhong

The exhibition is a special event staged in association with the dance poem “Two Swallows: Ode to Wu Guanzhong” presented by the Hong Kong Dance Company in November. Inspired by Wu Guanzhong’s paintings and enriched with multimedia effects as well as live six string performance, the programme is unprecedented in bringing together the rhythm and abstract movement of ink painting with the art of Chinese dance. Highlights of the programme will also be shown at the exhibition until April 15th, 2012.

Two Swallows, 1981; ink on paper, donated by Mr. Wu Guanzhong

Reminiscence of Jiangnan, 1996; ink on paper, donated by Mr. Wu Guanzhong

Former Residence of Qiu Jin, 1988; ink on paper, donated by Mr. Wu Guanzhong

Wu Guanzhong