I fell in love with gongbi painting while I was in a Chinese figure painting class at university some thirty years ago. I was amazed to discover that gongbi painting had originated more than 1,000 years prior and managed to survive into the late twentieth century. Most fine arts students saw this as a traditional technique for copying classical painting, which they only used to complete studio assignments. There were no new trends in gongbi painting in Hong Kong back then. When I finished my undergraduate studies, I started focusing on my gongbi painting practice. I tried to develop my painting style by combining traditional techniques and contemporary themes.
In the mid- to late 1990s, I began showing my gongbi paintings. In addition to my solo exhibitions, I was invited to participate in several contemporary art shows. I very much appreciate those curators and artists for their excitement about my practice and for considering it part of the contemporary art scene. However, my paintings were always hung amongst installations, mixed-media works, and video projections, and I could not find other artists who shared my chosen artistic language.
More than twenty years later, we are now seeing a whole new generation of contemporary gongbi painters in Hong Kong. There are a total of nine painters in this exhibition; I have met the other eight and I have witnessed their artistic development since their graduation shows. We have occasionally participated in some of the same ink painting or thematic exhibitions, but as we do not have an artist association that holds annual showcases and several of us are represented by different galleries, we have not yet had the chance to show together in an exhibition dedicated to gongbi painting.
I would like to express my gratitude to Hongkong Land for their support of Transcending the Gongbi Tradition. I would also like to thank Dr Chen Fong-fong for curating the exhibition. I first met Fong-fong when she interviewed me for a paper she was writing for an art history course as part of her master’s degree studies, and she quickly demonstrated a clear interest and expertise in the history of gongbi painting. As I mentioned, I was almost alone when I started developing my style in the gongbi genre. Now I am delighted to work with younger painters on an exhibition that marks a new chapter in the development of contemporary gongbi painting in Hong Kong. I hope that every visitor to the show will appreciate and enjoy these artists’ visions and efforts.
三十年前，當我在中文大學藝術系時，我對中國人物畫課修習的工筆畫風格感到好奇，一種有千多年歷史的畫技，流傳到二十世紀末仍未滅絕。可是當時的藝術同學們，普遍把工筆技巧視為臨摹古畫交功課的操作；而那時香港的藝術圈，亦沒有任何以工筆作為創新畫種的風氣。我畢業離開藝術系，便開始以傳統工筆風格，結合當代題材，嘗試發展成為我的個人風格。
在一九九零年代中後期，我開始展出工筆畫作，除了自己辦的個展，大多獲邀參與當代藝術家的聯展。雖然感激其時把我視為當代藝圈一部份的策展人及藝術友人，但我的工筆畫幅常常置身於裝置藝術、混合媒介與錄像投影之間，基本上找不到藝術語言相同的畫家。
二十多年後的香港藝壇，已經多了一整代富有當代風格的工筆畫家。這次展覽包括我共九位畫家參展，我見證着他們八位從大學院系的畢業展，及後漸漸建立個人風格。我與各人於不同時代認識，偶然在水墨展或其他聯展中同場展出。可是我們不像以往的國畫家以畫會名義維繫着周年展覽活動，而當中多數人又分別有不同畫廊代理，多年來我們仍未有一次以工筆畫為主題的展覽可以走在一起。
感謝置地公司的邀請及支持，提供場地及贊助這次「工筆新傳」的舉行。慶幸陳芳芳博士肩負策展人這重任，我認識芳芳是她修讀藝術史碩士時代，她為寫一份功課而邀我作訪問，從此我知道她對於工筆畫的興趣及持續研究。正如我提到，二十多年前我開始創作工筆畫時幾近孤軍作戰，如今有一批各具風格，兼且專注開拓工筆畫新面貌的年輕畫友，在此展聚首一堂，為香港的當代工筆畫發展，記下了內涵豐富的一章。我希望把各人努力的成果，向更多對藝術有興趣的人士推薦。