Preface
WILD IMAGINATION
In the development process of modern expression and international concept of ink painting creation, the ink painting practice in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao has been independent and pioneering. Reflecting on artists’ conceptual thinking and expressing contemporary ideology and spirit, Guangdong has formed the ‘Guangdong Spirit’ that is open and inclusive with its ‘coastal’ regional attributes, while its exploration on ink painting also fully demonstrates experimentation. In fact, Hong Kong and Macao had experiences in such experimentation even earlier than the Mainland. In the early stage, the establishment of groups represented by the Ink Society gradually brought influence in Hong Kong and Macao, creating an atmosphere of ink painting culture, and hence a sound and healthy artistic ecology. The forms of ink painting in today’s Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao are independent yet interconnected. The result is the appearance of a relatively comprehensive form of contemporary ink painting, with outstanding artists and excellent works emerging, thus helping to foster the development of contemporary ink painting art in other regions.
The Guangdong Museum of Art (GDMoA) has always been following contemporary ink painting, which is one of our important research areas. Since 2001, GDMoA has successively held three editions of contemporary ink painting exhibitions with the themes of China 20 Years of Ink Experiments, Infiltration- Idylls and Visions and Disguised Form: Ink Paintings’ Dimension, continuously promoting the study and exploration on ‘contemporary ink painting’. At the same time, GDMoA has curated and held several research exhibitions on the phenomena of contemporary ink painting and case study exhibitions featuring relevant artists, such as ‘Post-Lingnan School’ and Pearl River Delta, Ink Painting on Going: 2000 – 2019 and Over Mountains and Across Valleys: Wang Tiande’s Solo Exhibition. The objective was to present the best of contemporary ink painting art in different dimensions, perspectives and contexts.
In the past 20 years, the exploration on contemporary ink painting in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao has made new breakthroughs. The transition from traditional Chinese painting towards contemporary ink painting is a process of mutual infiltration and collisions between two cultural systems. In the cultural context of the new century, ink painting artists gradually focus on interpersonal relationships as well as relationships between citizens and the society, and between individuals and the zeitgeist, expressing their true understanding of and concerns on the reality and the self. They combine diverse media and elements such as composite materials, videos and installations in their works. Ink art has also gradually become a unique contemporary artistic language. Ink artists constantly try to explore the transformation of this artistic language from diverse perspectives, from concepts, techniques and media, and develop narratives, through different dimensions, methods and logics, to create new styles of contemporary ink art in the integration and intersection of local culture and international trends.
In order to realise the vision of jointly building the Cultured Greater Bay Area and further deepen thematic research on contemporary ink painting, the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Macao SAR Government and the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province, in coordination with the Macao Museum of Art and the Guangdong Museum of Art, co-organise Wild Imagination: Contemporary Ink Art in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao from 2000 to 2022, to jointly trace the academic context of the development of ink art in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and explore the dynamic development and new outlook of traditional ink painting in the regions in the new era after the Reform and Opening Up. The aim is to implement and promote the mechanism of collaborative innovation and cooperation for promoting cultural prosperity in the Greater Bay Area. The exhibition, with renowned curator and critic Mr. Pi Daojian as the guest curator, congregates more than 50 outstanding artists from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. The event tries to present the artists’ artistic characteristics and creative expressions which speak their minds, while attempting to observe, summarise and sort out, stage by stage, the development status of contemporary ink art in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao since the 21th century from the perspectives of ideological history and sociological research. Being the first exhibition taking the regional ink art of the Greater Bay Area as research samples, we hope it can provide visitors with many different paths to approach contemporary ink art, while deeply perceiving the symbiosis and dialogues of this art genre in contemporary times in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao in the past 20 years. At the same time, we also hope to, under the relevant academic background, better grasp the context of mutual promotion in contemporary ink art between different regions in the Greater Bay Area and better understand the possibilities for future development, so as to build a diversified and vibrant artistic ecology in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Wang Shaoqiang Director of China Artists Association
Vice Chairman of Guangdong Artists Association Curator of Guangdong Museum of Art