Date: 25 Feb 2023 - 25 Feb 2023
The Human Comedy: Ting Yin Yung’s Late-career Caricatures
Date: Saturday, 25 February 2023
Time: 3:00 pm–4:00 pm (HKT)
Mode of delivery: Online via Zoom, registration required
Language: Putonghua
Speaker: CAI Tao | Associate Professor, School of Arts and Humanities, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
Host: Sarah NG | Curator, University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong
Please click here to register.
Abstract
This lecture will focus on the mythological ink paintings created by Ting Yin Yung during his later years in Hong Kong, depicting vivid yet whimsical legendary figures and gods from Chinese folklore. Regarded as a kind of thoughtful madness, Ting’s artworks remind viewers of the vicissitudes and psychological trauma of the artist’s life, while also revealing aspects of his cultural consciousness, artistic pursuits and a layer of sublimation that infuses the later artworks. The freehand brushwork style—which has been in a state of transformation since the Ming and Qing dynasties—takes an unexpected turn into a form of caricature situated between the human and mythic world, and in so doing reconciles the traditions of East and West. This distinctive style of ink painting holds an essential place in the history of modern Chinese art that has yet to receive the recognition it truly deserves.
Speaker
Cai Tao, Associate Professor, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, was formerly a curator at the Guangdong Museum of Art. His research interests include modern art, artistic currents between China and Japan, war and visual culture and the art history of New China. He was a visiting scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute in 2011 and the Invitation Fellowship Program (JSPS) at the Kyoto National Museum in 2010.