Sun Museum is proud to present its latest exhibition “Duet of Flowers and Birds: Paintings by Chow Kunglei”, featuring the works of Chow Kung Lei, a Hong Kong ink painter and art educator. The exhibition will be running from January 12—April 6 2023.

Chow Kunglei graduated from the Shanghai Institute of Art in 1926. He was the pupil of the famous Russian painter Victor Stepanowitsch Podgoursky. Majoring in Western painting, he excelled in sketch portraits. On the other hand, Chow studied under famous Chinese painters Wu Changshuo and Li Teifu, and was much influenced by their painting styles. Chow developed his own trend by integrating Chinese and Western painting techniques. With lines and strokes taken from Chinese paintings, and the alternate use of dark and light colours from Western art, Chow created pieces with quick and unrestrained brushstrokes, with a sense of vitality.  

With his masterful incorporation of techniques drawn from the crux of different schools of art, Chow’s artistic achievements brought great delight to Wu Changshuo, leading Wu to see Chow as his well-qualified successor. Chow and Zhang Daqian became friends despite their age differences. After a painting session between the two, even Zhang exclaimed, “You are able to reproduce subjects which I am skilled in drawing with an excellent likeness; and yet I am unable to master figure drawings, which are clearly your forte.”

Venue address: 4/F, SML Building, 165 Hoi Bun Road, Kwun Tong, Kowloon