- Announcement marks the first time the Uffizi, Italy’s largest and most visited museum, has entered into a long-term partnership with a foreign institution
- We pick out seven must-see works at reopened HKMoA, including Xu Bing’s Book from the Sky and Bigger Trees Near Warter by David Hockney
The four-year renovation of the Hong Kong Museum of Art has not just upgraded its facade and exhibition spaces but also overhauled its curatorial programming, which will include future collaborations with the British Museum and Italy's Uffizi Gallery.
Hong Kong's Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), which runs 15 local museums, signed memorandums of understanding with Sir Richard Lambert, chairman of the British Museum, and Professor Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Gallery, on November 28, two days before the Museum of Art reopened to the public.
It is the first time the Uffizi Gallery, the largest and most visited museum in Italy, has entered into a strategic, long-term partnership with a foreign institution. It is also the first time the LCSD has collaborated with an Italian museum. The first exhibition from the Uffizi is planned for September 2020 to celebrate a year that Italy and China have labelled the "Italy-China Year of Culture and Tourism".
The show is reported to star paintings by Sandro Botticelli, one of the masters of the Italian Renaissance. At the moment, it is unknown which paintings will be shown in Hong Kong, but it is quite certain that two Botticelli masterpieces among Uffizi's signature pieces " the late 15th-century works Spring and Birth of Venus " will not be exhibited abroad. These iconic works are not allowed to go on loan, due to their status being integral to the Uffizi's identity.
Lending great works to museums abroad was a volatile political issue during Italy's previous government, a coalition that included the nationalist right-wing League party. Last year a League politician who was a culture ministry official protested about several works by Leonardo da Vinci being loaned by Italian museums to the Louvre in France.
Unlike his predecessors, Schmidt, a German and a Renaissance expert, has stressed innovation and cultural openness since becoming the first foreigner to lead the Uffizi in 2015. Such exhibitions "respond fully to the intention to bring our culture even to the most distant regions", Schmidt said in a written statement.
Sharing (the Uffizi's) expertise with the world is central to our missionEike Schmidt, director, Uffizi Gallery
His is a divergent mindset given Italy's historically rare, and hesitant, lending of works of art internationally. The current culture minister, Dario Franceschini, during a previous stint in the post, had to overcome widespread domestic reluctance over allowing foreigners to lead Italy's top state museums. Franceschini argued that cultural experience and talent transcend national borders.
The memo of understanding with Hong Kong also calls for the development of professional exchange programmes. "Sharing (the Uffizi's) expertise with the world is central to our mission," Schmidt said.
In addition to offering exhibitions, the Uffizi will offer a professional exchange programme for its museum personnel and facilitate visits by Hong Kong youth ambassadors to the gallery under a five-year plan.
Unlike the Uffizi, the British Museum has long had a close relationship with the LCSD and has a history of collaborating with international institutions.
It has previously jointly organised two exhibitions in Hong Kong: "Eternal Life " Exploring Ancient Egypt" in 2017 and "A History of the World in 100 Objects from the British Museum" this year. More recently, it was a partner in this year's Museum Summit, a conference in Hong Kong addressing the advent of technology and how it has transformed art and museums, featuring over 30 expert speakers on the topic.
Seven artworks you should see at the Hong Kong Museum of Art
Back with 12 newly remodelled and modernised galleries spread over 10,000 square metres (108,000 square feet), the Museum of Art contains more than 17,000 items in its collection. Eleven exhibitions are currently on view. Here are seven artworks you absolutely should not miss.
Two Swallows by Wu Guanzhong
Known for fusing Western and Chinese traditions of painting in his signature landscapes of China, Wu is considered a master of 20th-century Chinese art. Ethereal and delicate, Two Swallows reflects the artist's mastery of ink on paper, and was donated by the artist's family to the Museum of Art's collection.
The work is part of the exhibition "From Dung Basket to Dining Cart", which commemorates the 100th anniversary of the birth of the artist and strives to exhibit various facets of his oeuvre, as well as document the evolution of his practice.
Particularly fond of Hong Kong, Wu gifted more than 450 items to the Museum of Art, which now holds the largest and most diverse collection of work by the artist.
Bigger Trees Near Warter by David Hockney
In November last year, Hockney's Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) was sold at auction for US$90.3 million, at the time the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction by a living artist. Though toppled by Jeff Koons, whose Rabbit sold in May this year for US$91.1 million, Hockney has cemented his status as one of the most influential and sought-after living artists.
Spread over 50 canvases, Bigger Trees Near Warter is literally unmissable. Demonstrative of the artist's signature style infused with bold colours, the painting depicts scenery in the context of the evolution of British landscape and forms part of the exhibition "A Sense of Place: from Turner to Hockney".
Book from the Sky by Xu Bing
Occupying an entire room, not to mention ceiling, Book from the Sky is another hard-to-miss work on view at the museum.
The practice of acclaimed Chinese artist Xu is centred around the concept of text and has already made its mark in contemporary art history. The artist hand-carved over 4,000 movable type printing blocks for this four-volume installation and it was produced over the span of four years. Consisting of thousands of characters resembling Chinese, but are in fact meaningless, the work plays with our ability and desire to want to read the illegible text.
Engagement of the Alceste with the Bocca Tigris Forts by John McLeod
Capturing a significant piece of colonial history, McLeod's subtle and quaint aquatint depicts a war scare in 1816, during which the British ship Alceste fired at forts at the Bocca Tigris (also known as Humen " a strait in the Pearl River Delta) on account of a misunderstanding between the Jiaqing Emperor of China and Captain Maxwell of the Alceste.
The work is part of the Chater collection, one of the museum's most valued collections. It consists of historical pictures and engravings relating to China amassed by Sir Catchick Paul Chater, a prominent British-Indian businessman in Hong Kong who died in 1926. Many of the pieces from the original collection were displaced during the second world war. Some works were later rescued by Hong Kong citizens, contributing to the narrative of the exhibition that documents the history of how they were kept hidden and eventually recovered.
Autumn Landscape by Lin Fengmian
Considered a pioneer of Chinese modern painting, Lin is renowned for his work that blends Eastern and Western aesthetics.
A teacher as well as an artist, he had an incredibly global outlook early on in the 1930s, but with the onset of the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976), he was persecuted and tortured for being an "intellectual". He later lived and worked in Hong Kong and passed away at the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital.
Evoking a sense of serenity through soft but vibrant colours, Autumn Landscape is part of the museum's "Ordinary to Extraordinary: Stories of the Museum" exhibition.
Song dynasty plate
A source of inspiration to Lin Fengmian, Song dynasty (960-1279) ceramics almost pre-empt the simple, elegant minimalist aesthetic that is currently immensely popular. Reflective of the trend is this white-glazed plate with a moulded decoration of twin fishes in a lotus pond, appearing as almost an embossed effect.
Part of the exhibit "The Best of Both Worlds", the piece is among more than 300 items of art and antiques from different periods. The exhibition intends to illustrate how acquisition and generous donations form and shape the museum's comprehensive Chinese antiquities collection.
Splashed Colour Landscape by Zhang Daqian
Another stunning example of Chinese modernism, legendary artist Zhang's richly hued (he often derived pigments from mineral sources), gravitating painting " from the exhibition "A Pleasure Shared: Selected Works from the Chih Lo Lou Collection" " features as our last highlight.
Fusing abstract expressionism and broken "ink" techniques from the Tang dynasty, Zhang beautifully fuses Eastern and Western methodology in his representations of nature. One of the most prodigious artists of his time, his mastery of ink and colour was best portrayed through a number of highly skilled forgeries of Chinese classical works he managed to pull off.
Opening hours: Mon to Wed and Fri, 10am to 6pm; Sat, Sun and public holidays, 10pm to 5pm. 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. Admission: free for permanent exhibitions and HK$30 for "A Sense of Place: From Turner To Hockney"
Additional reporting by Associated Press
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