Legacy of the Heavenly Breeze: The Art of Gao Qifeng, Chao Shao-an and Au Ho-nien
Exhibition Period: From 24 March 2018 to 13 May 2018
Venue: Gallery I, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

The Lingnan School of Painting plays a significant role in the history of 20th century Chinese art. Inspired by the Geshan school (which can be traced back to the earlier Jiangsu bird-and-flower painters) as well as Japanese painting, the schools’ forefathers, Gao Jianfu (1879–1951), Gao Qifeng (1889–1933), and Chen Shuren (1884–1948), innovated Chinese painting by “making the best of the Chinese and Western worlds, and bridging the past and the present“. Gao Qifeng, in particular, made a major impact and received high acclaims with his exquisite brushwork which portrayed a wide variety of subjects most vividly (especially bird, flower and animal) – despite his all too short life. In 1929, Gao moved to the“Heavenly Breeze Studio“ in Ersha Island, Guangzhou for convalescence and had a lot of artistic gatherings with his disciples there. The place had since become an important symbol for the Lingnan School. The seven most accomplished of Gao's disciples were thus known together as the“Seven Disciples of Heavenly Breeze“.

Chao Shao-an (1905–1998), the youngest of the seven, not only managed to continue Gao's artistic legacy, but also renew it and bring the School to achieve international fame. After settling in Hong Kong in 1948, Chao started accepting students and had developed a strong following, so much so that he was hailed as a master of the Lingnan School of his generation. Professor Au Ho-nien (b. 1935) came under Chao's tutelage at the age of 17. Building on Chao's artistic craft, Au has developed a style of his own characterized by bold, vigorous brushwork. Excelling not just in painting but also in poetry and calligraphy, he is a representative figure among the third-generation masters. In 1970, Au migrated to Taiwan at the behest of his teacher to spread the Lingnan art to the island. For over a century, the three generations of Heavenly Breeze Studio artists have carried on their treasured tradition while exploring and breaking new grounds.

As one of the major sites for the collection of, and research into Lingnan paintings, the Art Museum’s intellectual endeavour with the School began since the museum was founded in the 1970s. The Museum had its first collection of Gao Qifeng's paintings in as early as 1973. Chao Shao-an started teaching Chinese painting in the 1950s at the Department of Chinese of Chung Chi College, which later became one of the constituent colleges of CUHK, until summer 1960 when he left for visiting positions in the United States and endorsed Professor Au Ho-nien as his successor. Chao and Au later both took up visitorship at CUHK and generously donated their works to the University. Au was also conferred an honorary doctorate by CUHK in 2016. All this testifies to the three masters' connection with the University.

This exhibition showcases 65 works of altogether 85 pieces of painting and calligraphy, in which 12 works (30 pieces of painting and calligraphy) were composed by Professor Au specially for the occasion and gifted to the Museum for its permanent collection. Professor Au, Professor To Cho-yee, and the Chung Chi College also kindly lend 6 works by the three masters so as to enrich the exhibition. Taken together, these works can offer a glimpse into the development of the Lingnan School over more than a century and shed light on important aspects of the history of the 20th century Chinese painting.