Traces of Modern Art: Works from the 20th to the 21st Centuries
Since the 20th century, modern artistic trends have extended in multiple directions, bringing dramatic changes to art forms and aesthetic tendencies while exerting a gradual influence on the development of arts in Asia, including Macao.
Light and colours: From 1936 to 1937, Macao-based Portuguese painter Fausto Sampaio (1893–1956) introduced impressionist paintings from Europe to Macao and portrayed the city’s picturesque scenery with his meticulous brushstrokes. Between the spring of 1944 and November 1945, Russian architect and painter George Smirnoff (1903–1947) was taking refuge in Macao and captured his impressions of the city in ever-changing light and shadow with watercolour and oil paintings. Luís Demée (1929–2014), hailed as the father of abstract painting in Macao, was his most successful protégé.
Ink painting experiments: Lui Shou Kwan (1919–1975) moved from Guangzhou to Hong Kong in 1948 and was actively engaged in innovating and experimenting with ink paintings; his 12 Macao landscape paintings produced in 1957 are distinctive works that combine the traditional freehand style with modern abstract techniques. French-Spanish artist Charles Chauderlot (1952–) has paid a number of visits to Macao since 2005 and created ink paintings that feature a combination of Western perspective techniques and the Chinese concept of ‘empty space’.
Abstract creations: German painter Otto Eglau (1917–1988) was fascinated by the fishing port scenery that he encountered when travelling between Hong Kong and Macao in 1963. Nevertheless, he created his paintings with a highly rational approach and conveyed their essence using simple yet convincing geometric shapes in an abstract manner. Renowned Portuguese painter Teresa Magalhães (1944– ) travelled to Macao in 1990 to work as a specialist at the ‘Portuguese Painters from the 20th Century’ exhibition; in her paintings under the ‘Macao’ series, she used the visual patterns of folk paper offerings as collage materials to create the unique beauty of the fusion between the East and the West. Greek-French painter Gerard Economos (1935–2016) was skilful at improvising paintings in live music performances. He was invited to hold a large solo exhibition in Macao in 1999 and completed the ‘Chinese Boat’ on the opening day of the exhibition. His paintings focus on achieving harmony between colour and rhythm.
Poetic sculptures: Between 1984 and 1985, acclaimed Portuguese sculptor Dorita Castelo Branco (1936–1996) paid several visits to Macao for the creation of the large public artwork at the observation tower in Taipa. The distinctive relief artwork represents the city’s unique culture over the past 450 years in a perceivable abstract manner through simple illustrations. During her stay in Macao, she recorded the traditions and customs of local people through sketches created with colour pencils. Tanaka Masato (1961– ), born in Yokohama, Japan, was invited to join the Macao City Fringe Festival in 2000. His installations are known for conveying the poetic beauty in motion through the integration of natural wind power, gravity, sound, light and technology.
Etching and woodcut prints: Fernarda Dias (1945– ) have lived in Macao for 19 years, and the Bartolomeu printmaking studio at the former Macao Visual Arts Institute has exerted a strong influence on her artistic creation. Dias is profoundly sentimental over Macao and the etchings under the ‘Macao-Roots’ series are her best tribute to the city. Guangdong printmaker Xue Yihan (1937–2008) was the leader of the South Sea Fleet’s fine arts school before Macao’s handover, during which he visited Macao frequently for three years to sketch the city’s landscape. Xue integrated vivid colours of oil paintings into his prints and created the set of woodcut prints entitled ‘Macao Splendour’ as a tribute to Macao’s handover to China.
Concepts and installations: Two contemporary artists have created their works in Macao since 2000. American conceptual artist Morgan O’Hara (1941– ) spent her childhood and adolescence in Japan, where she first felt a close connection between her life and art. O’Hara stayed in Macao twice (in 2002 and 2004), during which she made pencil drawings depicting how local people move their hands in everyday life and work, and these drawings are considered as showing the characteristics of action painting and performance art. Notable French video artist Robert Cahen (1945– ) is a pioneer in experimental media arts and his works are known for leading viewers to a brand-new realm of perception through the combination of realistic and illusionary images. He was invited to hold a solo exhibition at the Macao Museum of Art (MAM) in 2005.
Traditional Western paintings emphasise the expression of artists’ sentiments through their depiction of nature and daily life. In the 20th century, however, a group of artists focused on spiritual explorations and extended applications of concepts, breaking the limitations of realism and bringing transformational changes to traditional aesthetics. This section features around 60 pieces (sets) of Macaothemed artworks in the MAM collection created by 12 artists from Portugal, France, Russia, Germany, United States, Japan, as well as Hong Kong and Guangdong, China. These artworks, produced using a variety of media, have greatly broadened the spectrum of art forms and have influenced the development of modernism in Macao.