In 2019, the AGGV welcomed Heng Wu as the new Curator of Asian Art. We catch up with her three years on to get an update on her role and the evolution of the Gallery’s diverse collection of Asian art.
By Heng Wu, Curator of Asian Art, AGGV.
A horse-drawn carriage passing the Legislative Assembly building, instantly captured in freehand-style brushwork, resonating with a festival night in China about 900 years ago recorded in a poem by the Chinese poet Xin Qiji (1140-1207). A young girl in traditional Chinese dress dancing under a maple tree, paired with a line transcribed in the seal-script calligraphy, which reads, “Where my heart settles, is where my home is.” The colorful float homes gilding Victoria’s Fisherman’s Wharf rendered in traditional Chinese ink wash with a tone of Western oil painting.
The Chinese handheld fan as we know it today is thought to have come into existence around the Zhou Dynasty (1050-221 B.C.E.).
By Audrey Wang, AGGV Volunteer
Hiroshi Yoshida (Japanese, 1876-1950) is well known not only as a master print-maker in the early part of the 20th century, but also as an avid traveler and a proponent of a blending of modern Western and traditional Japanese art techniques.
The current exhibition The Places We Live In considers the many ways artists interpret the natural world around them, from the micro to the macro. The range of works featured here is equally varied! This issue of Art Terms takes a few wide-ranging, unrelated, examples from this exhibition.