In the mood for ink: how the City Art Gallery shaped our perception of New Ink art as the mainstream 'Hong Kong Art' from the late sixties to early seventies and its political connotations

Abstract

Most literature and academic discussions on the history of Hong Kong Art seem to present an impression of the Hong Kong art scene in the sixties and seventies being dominated by artists associated with the New Ink Movement, an art movement spearheaded by the Chinese ink art artist Lui Shou Kwan and later his protégé Wucius Wong. The first part of this paper examines the ‘Hong Kong Art’ exhibitions organised by the City Art Gallery, the predecessor of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, in the late sixties and early seventies, and details how the City Art Gallery contributed to promoting New Ink Art as the mainstream ‘Hong Kong Art’ through favouring New Ink artists in its exhibitions, at a time when Wucius Wong was the institution’s Assistant Curator. The second part of this paper proposes, with reference to the socio-political context of Hong Kong at the time, that the promotion of New Ink Art might be related to the Colonial Government’s attempt to instil a local identity that echoes the ‘East meets West’ rhetoric promoted by the Administration to downplay Hong Kong’s connection to China after the Leftist Riot in 1967. The ultimate purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the power of museums in influencing our perception of history and identity by deciding who or what to include in exhibitions.