For Art Basel Hong Kong 2024, HdM GALLERY will bring the works of T'ang Haywen, a famous Chinese artist who lived in France in the last century. T'ang Haywen was born in Xiamen in 1927. He learned calligraphy and painting from his grandfather Zeng Yan when he was young. Because he was influenced by Shi Tao, a famous painter in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties who was proficient in ink techniques, T'ang Haywen became interested in traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting at an early age. Due to the outbreak of the war in 1937, T'ang Haywen moved to Vietnam, then went to France in 1948 and settled in Paris. In the early 1950's, he began taking painting classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, going against his family's wishes for good thanks to his determination to become a professional artist.
Shape, composition, and color are the common pictorial elements used in almost all paintings. However, in traditional Chinese painting, the focus on 'brush' and 'ink' creates the unique aesthetic mood of traditional Chinese art. T'ang Haywen's paintings pay attention to the sense of form but are not limited to it. From figurative painting to abstract expressionism, after continuous learning and experimentation, T'ang Haywen finally returned to abstract painting with an oriental flavour introduced by the use of ink; in his paintings, a brushstroke is used that is at times bold and at times delicate. The essence of paper is to emphasizse the expression of the spirit, transcending the world where consciousness echoes the forces of nature, and to materialise it through painting. T'ang Haywen looks at nature, the world and even the universe in a mysterious and primitive way, and demonstrates the Chinese philosophical thought of 'unity of nature and man' through his paintings.
In recent years, the international art world, both commercial and institutional, has paid considerable attention to Zao Wou-ki, Chu Teh-Chun, Walasse Ting, T'ang Haywen and other representative artists who studied in France in the 1950's and have all become masters of Eastern and Western art. In 2024, on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of T'ang Haywen's death, France's Guimet Museum will hold a large-scale retrospective exhibition of T'ang Haywen at the Guimet Museum in Paris, France at the same time as Art Basel Hong Kong. Dozens of the artist's important works will be on display for the show, and will be displayed in a three-dimensional and comprehensive way. It shows how T'ang Haywen used Eastern philosophy as his foundation and as a tool to find his pictorial language to find a place in a diverse international art world. As a pioneer in introducing Chinese abstract ink painting to the world, T'ang Haywen undoubtedly left a unique and profound mark on the development of modern Chinese ink painting.
28–30 March 2024
Vernissage
Wednesday 27 March, 4pm–8pm
Public Days
Thursday 28 March, 2pm–8pm
Friday 29 March, 2pm–8pm
Saturday 30 March, 1pm–7pm
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC)
1 Expo Dr, Wan Chai,
Hong Kong