Luis Chan (1905 - 1995) is the most celebrated pioneer of modern art in Hong Kong; his career parallels that of his Chinese peer generation such as Lin Fengmin and Liu Haisu, and yet his artistic development went down a completely different path. “The World of Luis Chan”, is the first retrospective exhibition in China to commemorate the significant contribution of this first generation modern artist.  The exhibition is created in collaboration with Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai International Culture Association and The Luis Chan Family, and comprises over one hundred works including publications, documentaries and photographs.

Native of Guangdong Province and born in Panama in 1905, Luis settled in Hong Kong with his family in 1910.  As a landscape painter from the late 1920s to 1960, Luis used to go on painting expeditions around Hong Kong, and made a reputation as the "King of Watercolour". Together with artists Li Byng and Yee Bon, Luis was known as the "Three Masters" of Hong Kong.  In the 1950s, Luis entered a period of intense experimentation with the full spectrum of international avant-garde styles, immersing himself in Western abstraction in particular.  In the late 1960s, Luis underwent dramatic transformations in his visual rhetoric that developed into a repertoire of dreamscape fantasies populated with colourful creatures, both real and imaginary. His fantasies are inspired by the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong life; his art reaches into the deep recesses of the subconscious mind, out of which emerges the magnificent visions that are the transfigurations of a modest life lived to its full. Apart from being an artist, art critic and writer, Luis Chan was also a renowned social figure and a seminal catalyst in Hong Kong's art circle.  From his first solo debut exhibition in 1933 until his final show in 1993, Luis Chan presented 47 solo exhibitions over his long career and published countless articles on modern art.

The opening ceremony will take place at Shanghai Art Museum on 29th February 2012 followed by a forum “Another Modernity : The Multiple Tracks of Luis Chan and Modern Chinese Art History”. This exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue and a documentary video, both entitled “The World of Luis Chan”.