Hong Kong, 5 May (ZXS) -- Question: What is the value of Hong Kong art?

——Interview with Lin Tianxing, Chairman of the Hong Kong American Association

China News Agency reporter Han Xingtong

The famous painter Lin Tianxing, chairman of the Hong Kong Fine Arts Association, has different creative directions and methods of expression at each stage, but whether it is a lotus flower that emerges from the mud and is not stained, or a stoic calamus, they all have a unique personality under the brushstrokes of Chinese and Western blending, presenting the changes of the times and the unique perception of the painter.

Lin Tianxing recently said in an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East-West Question" that Hong Kong, an international metropolis, has long subtly penetrated into the creation of every artist born here, grew up here, and lived here.

Video: Lam Tianxing: What is the value of Hong Kong art? Source: China News Network

The following is a summary of the interview:

China News Agency: In your opinion, how receptive are Westerners to Eastern paintings? What can Chinese and Western painters learn from each other in art techniques?

Lin Tianxing: Generally speaking, I think Chinese still have a good understanding of Western art, including Western art history and painting techniques, basically over the past 100 years, Chinese painters have borrowed from Western painting, including color, composition, and concepts. For example, at the beginning of the 20th century, after Lin Fengmian returned to China, he used Fauvist techniques and compositions to express Chinese ink painting, presenting a new style and picture, and connecting with the era, which is very moving, completely different from traditional painting methods and structures, and expanding the boundaries of traditional Chinese painting.

In turn, Westerners tend to feel unfamiliar with Chinese art, including Chinese painting, as if in their eyes Chinese painting was still before the Qing Dynasty. I have been to several European countries for exhibitions, and they felt very strange when they saw my paintings, how can Chinese paintings have such colors and such compositions? They felt that Chinese painting should still have a lot of white space and inscriptions like the tradition.

Lin Tianxing in the studio. Photo by Chen Yongnuo

China News Agency: Hong Kong is a place where Chinese and Western cultures blend, what is the embodiment in the field of fine arts? What are your explorations and attempts at this?

Lam: As an international metropolis, Hong Kong is one of the meeting points of world cultures, and you can feel the culture and art of the world living here. People who work in art here may be more open, tolerant and free, and artistic creation is actually inseparable from such an environment. Many Hong Kong painters' works are very novel, especially in recent years, many young artists use new ways, new materials, and new concepts to express their feelings about life, life and society, which I think is particularly good.

Lin Tianxing's work: Bells in the Clouds Ink on paper 59x41cm 2022. Photo courtesy of Lin Tianxing

Hong Kong painters combined China and the West in their creations, and there were precedents in the sixties and seventies of the 20th century, such as Lu Shoukun, who himself had a deep foundation in traditional painting, and then applied some techniques of the Western expressionist school to integrate the two. In the 20s of the 80th century, there was Wang Wuxian and was also a leader. Hong Kong design is very famous in the world, many designers are also painters, they will integrate the composition of design, the method, the civilization of the new era and industrial development into the painting, making people feel that this is an art belonging to Hong Kong.

Personally, since the late 20s of the 80th century, I have believed that art should be different from tradition, so I borrowed Western pointillism to break the traditional triadic and composition, I turned everything into dots and put them back together. In the mid-20s of the 90th century, I went back and painted Hong Kong in a straight line in a splash of ink and color, using surreal techniques to express the criss-crossing, busy and prosperous scene of Hong Kong, and I wanted to use color and expression to present the urban power and vitality of Hong Kong.

Lin Tianxing's work: Bauhinia blossoms under the Lion Mountain Ink coloring on paper 59x40cm 2022. Photo courtesy of Lin Tianxing

Later, I went to Tibet, which was the third change in my painting career, and my paintings mainly expressed Tibet's rich sense of religion, mystery and natural scenery. After returning from Tibet, I painted a lot of lotus flowers because I felt that lotus flowers were a symbol of eternity and sublimity. The lotus flower emerges from the mud and remains unclean, and countless poets and painters have sung its praises for thousands of years. I keep painting lotus flowers, but each one is different, because I think lotus flowers are like life, life has joys, sorrows, highs and lows, so the lotus flowers I paint pursue a variety of colors, colorful, and different artistic conceptions.

Lin Tianxing's work: He Ge ink coloring on paper 193x183cm 2021. Photo courtesy of Lin Tianxing

China News Agency: What successful attempts have Hong Kong painters made to integrate Chinese and Western creative styles? What are the common characteristics? Is it inevitable that these works will be born in Hong Kong?

Lam: Hong Kong is a very open place where different cultures come together. As Hong Kong artists, we also grew up unconsciously immersed in it, integrating different cultures and arts from all over the world. Hong Kong art and literature are like a "big pot of vegetables", which is very rich in mountain and sea delicacies and meat and vegetarian dishes. Many artists inadvertently combine these things into a Hong Kong style. I think "Hong Kong style" has no boundaries, no specific tradition or avant-garde, and this is also the lovely thing about "Hong Kong style".

Lin Tianxing's work: Yaoyuan ink coloring on paper 97x180cm 2022. Photo courtesy of Lin Tianxing

China News Agency: What is the recognition of art works that combine Chinese and Western concepts in academia, industry and market? Do Hong Kong artists have a unique advantage in this regard? What are the implications for their Mainland counterparts?

Lam: In recent years, Hong Kong has become the second largest art trading market in the world, which is of course of great help to the development of Hong Kong's art. Now there are more and more works by young artists in Hong Kong, which are doing very well in the market. Today's artists, as long as they paint well, will definitely have a market. If there is both market and academic, of course, it is the best.

Lin Tianxing's work: Lian Yu Ink coloring on paper 45x53cm 2021. Photo courtesy of Lin Tianxing

The works of Hong Kong artists do not have such heavy baggage, they are relatively open and free, and their pictures, colors, expression techniques and the combination of Chinese and Western characteristics should be said to provide some reference for their mainland counterparts, and inspire them not to set too many frames and restrictions on themselves. Art should not have too many boxes, it should be created freely, feel and express, which is the most important.

Lin Tianxing's work: Spring Light Ink coloring on paper 45x53cm 2020. Photo courtesy of Lin Tianxing

China News Agency: What influence has the evolution of the times had on your creative style? What other areas do you want to expand in the future?

Lin Tianxing: For an artist with pursuits, there should be different directions and pursuits at each stage. For example, I once went to Tibet and started painting lotus flowers when I came back.

In 2019, when the "turmoil over the amendment of the extradition bill" occurred in Hong Kong, I was no longer in the mood to paint very comfortable lotus flowers, and began to use calamus to express my state of mind. In traditional Chinese culture, each grass of calamus is a sword that can slay demons and remove demons. In 2020, there was another outbreak of the new crown epidemic, and I continued to draw calamus, hoping to use it to ward off the epidemic.

Calamus expressed a state of mind in my previous years, I think that a painter's changes in society and feelings about society should be expressed in the picture, which is a sense of the times. But art is unknown, you won't know what to express tomorrow, which is also the charm of art.

After three years of the pandemic, the "closed door" has finally opened, and I think Hong Kong is at the best moment ever, to open a new chapter in culture and art. The National 14th Five-Year Plan has given Hong Kong a new mission, that is, to develop into a Sino-foreign cultural and artistic exchange center, and the Hong Kong SAR Government attaches great importance to the development of culture and art. (End)

Lin Tianxing's work: Dance Ink coloring on paper 97x180cm 2023. Photo courtesy of Lin Tianxing

Respondent Profile:

Lam Tianxing, Chairman of the Hong Kong American Association. Photo by Chen Yongnuo Lin Tianxing, formerly known as Lin Gong, is currently the chairman of the Hong Kong American Association, the executive vice president of the Hong Kong Member Association of the China Federation of Literary and Literary Associations, a member of the National Committee of the China Federation of Literary and Literary Associations, the chairman of the Hong Kong Branch of the China Artists Association, a director of the China Artists Association, and a director of the Chinese Painting Society. Lin Tianxing has held more than 50 solo exhibitions in many countries and regions, and his works have been selected for the Contemporary Hong Kong Art Biennale, the Centennial Chinese Painting Exhibition, the National Art Exhibition, and the 30 Years of China's Reform and Opening Up Exhibition. His works have been collected by the National Art Museum of China, the National Academy of Painting, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, and the Hong Kong Protocol House. He has published more than 20 monographs of his own works.