Saturday, August 6, 2011

Painted (This week's Photo Hunt theme)




Around this time last year, I went to the Hong Kong Museum of Art to check out its special exhibition entitled Lofty Integrity: Donation of Works by Wu Guanzhong. Held between March 26th and October 10th, 2010, it featured 51 works by the Chinese painter, including several that he had himself donated to the museum.

Sadly, Wu Guanzhong passed away in the middle of Lofty Integrity's exhibition period. But as a look at his artworks shows (and a read of such as the long-lived individual's obituaries confirm), he led quite the full life and left the world with much to admire and treasure.

Viewing his works chronologically, it is interesting to see how in his old age, Wu's paintings grew increasingly abstract. However, the Victoria Harbour scenes he painted on clear glass on a 2002 visit to Hong Kong (two photographs of which are included in this Photo Hunt entry) -- and displayed once more at the Hong Kong Museum of Art (which happens to be located by Victoria Harbour) in 2010 -- contain easily recognizable representations of buildings, boats and waves that are very evocative.

Also on display as part of the Lofty Integrity exhibition were the highly respected artist's paint-splattered palette and other artistic tools. As a light-hearted aside: When viewing the palette, I got to thinking that it could be easily mistaken for an abstract painting, albeit not an abstract painted by Wu himself!

22 comments:

magiceye said...

beautiful takes!

Anonymous said...

lovely take on the theme. it didn't even cross my mind to choose painting :)

Luna Miranda said...

i like the paint-splattered palette. we were on the same wave length.:p

Anonymous said...

Beautiful. I am surprise they let you take pictures inside the museum, though!

Happy hunting and happy weekend.

LifeRamblings said...

beautiful artwork. happy weekend.

Annie said...

Thank you for the introduction to this artist; I like this work. Agree that that the palette looks like a painting.

Happy weekend!

YTSL said...

Hi magiceye --

Thanks! :)

Hi ewok1993 --

Must admit that my first thought with regards to this theme were buildings (which often have painted exteriors). But when rooting through my photo archive, I found these photos and thought they'd be good to put up and share. :)

Hi Luna Miranda --

Guess we are both artistically inclined... ;b

Hi Mar --

There were some items (e.g., paintings on canvas) that we weren't allowed to take photos of. I think there's the fear that flashes on cameras will be bad for those works. Fortunately, however, there were some items we were allowed to take photos of -- and I, of course, welcomed the opportunity offered to do so. :)

Hi Life Ramblings --

Thanks and happy weekend to you too. :)

Hi Annie --

Am glad to have been able to introduce you to the works of Wu Guanzhong through this blog entry. :)

Anonymous said...

Perfect shot for this week's theme! The palette is cool to look at.

Have a good weelend.

jams o donnell said...

An excellent take on the theme. I like that the chose to paint on glass. I am sure it gives great potential i displaying them.

Marites said...

quite a talented person and it's quite a loss. my PH is here.

Liz said...

These are beautiful! It was great you were able to take pictures, some museums don't allow that. :)

Have a fabulous weekend.

Liz @ MLC

YTSL said...

Hi JdeQ --

Thanks for liking the photos in this entry. :)

Hi jams --

Wu's paintings on glass really are something -- especially when displayed in that particular context. :)

Hi Marites --

Yes, it's a loss -- but I'm going to look at the positive side and think in terms of his having lived a long and obviously productive life.

Hi Liz --

I know what you mean about museums. Another factor is that some museums allow some things to be photographed and others not to be. I generally find that art museums are more restrictive re photographs -- and in particular with regards to old paintings (as opposed to, say, sculptures and ceramics).

Trekcapri said...

HI YTSL, to echo Annie's comments, thank you also for the introduction to Wu Guanzhong. I clicked on the link to learn more about him. What a very talented artist and a very interesting life. I also think your first photo of his palette also looks like an art piece. I love the two Victoria Harbour scenes. Very cool.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Gattina said...

Very interesting !
You should have left your link in my linky thing it's easier for the others. at the very beginning of Photo Hunters everybody did so.
It's really getting hard to find the participants.

gengen said...

Good take for the theme. Happy hunting.

Carver said...

Great take on the theme. I like it when museums allow non flash photography.

Sandra said...

Lovely photos, I really like the palette too! Happy weekend.

YTSL said...

Hi Trekcapri --

I'm glad you as well as Annie got introduced to Wu Guanzhong via this blog entry. Hope you guys will come across his works in the flesh at some point. :)

Hi Gattina --

The Mr Linky thing seemed a bit superfluous. Just assumed you and other Photo Hunters would be able to find me through the usual means -- i.e., via comments pages and also tnchick's page.

Something I do as well before tnchick's page for the week appears that I've got some success with: going to the Blogs section of Google and searching for "Photo Hunters" + the theme of the week. (Incidentally, this is how I came across the offending blog that takes my stuff -- previously wholesale and now only not so because I changed the feed option of my blog... :S)

Hi gengen --

Thanks and happy hunting to you too. :)

Hi Carver --

I'm with you re the museums -- and also places of worship (which often contain a lot of art and other interesting items)! :)

Hi Sandra --

I'm glad you like all three photos. :)

jmb said...

Great photos for the theme. I never thought of choosing a painting either.

Have a great week YTSL.

eastcoastlife said...

I thought the paint-splattered palette is one of his works! :P

Susan Demeter said...

Love this style of artwork!

YTSL said...

Hi jmb --

Glad you like the photos and the idea behind my take on this past week's Photo Hunt theme. :)

Hi EastCoastLife --

If you see Wu Guanzhong's works, I don't think you'd mistake his palette for one of his paintings! :D

Hi Sue --

I'm glad you like this style of art. :)