During the past few years, well-known figures of the world such as Prof Tu Weiming and Prof Lokesh Chandra have visited SGM. SGM once again welcomed a world-renowned personality, Taiwanese artist Prof Liu Kuo-Sung – also known as the father of modern Chinese ink painting – to hold an art talk at Wisma Kebudayaan SGM on September 9, 2018.
The talk entitled “My Creative Concept and the Renaissance of Ink Painting” was organised by SGM and co-organised by Sin Chew Daily, with Hong Kong-based Malaysian artist CN Liew as the moderator. With great passion, Prof Liu shared with some 250 people his experiences after spending nearly 70 years in the art field and thoughts on being an advocate in promoting the modernisation of Chinese painting.
In his welcoming remarks, SGM General Director Koh Sia Feai warmly welcomed Prof Liu to Malaysia and expressed his deep respect to Prof Liu, who was always seeking to break through limitations and has dedicated his whole life to trailblazing a revolution in Chinese ink painting. Mr Koh also mentioned that his efforts and continuous improvement has created a colourful and legendary life for him which has inspired many youth in the same field.
Prof Liu began studying traditional Chinese painting at the age of 14, and at 20 he switched to study Western painting. While creating numerous acclaimed artworks, he also enriched himself with new knowledge which led him to invent a number of unique techniques after much experiment.
During the art talk, Prof Liu, mentioned the differences in creating paintings in Western and Oriental styles. Even though the tools, materials and skills used are very different, the artistic philosophy and theoretical development head towards the same direction. He also shared that the idea of “the modernisation of Chinese ink painting” is to have a selective absorption and internalisation of the characteristics of modern civilisation from the Western world, and then create the style of a new era in our Chinese culture.
Prof Liu further stressed on the educational approach of “first seek differences, then seek excellence” and advocated the idea of the classroom as a lab, not a traditional painting-copying factory. He believed that in order to bring forth new ideas, an artist must establish his own way of thinking first before implementing it into his paintings. In addition, creating art is like building skyscrapers in which the result should look professional, rich in depth and fine in form.
After the talk, accompanied by Mr Koh, Prof Liu visited the SGM Mentor and Disciple Peace Exhibition Hall. He was deeply impressed by President Ikeda’s efforts in achieving peace around the world.
