The University Museum and Art Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of ink and colour paintings by Chow Chian-chiu (1910–2006) and Chow Leung Chen-ying (1921–2005), prominent members of the Lingnan School of painting and widely recognized as a unique couple for their lifelong devotion to art and their teaching of Chinese art to students worldwide.

Born in Guangdong province, Chow Chian-chiu, the student of painter Chao Shao-an (1905–1998) and poet Huang Zhuqu (1877–1945), and Leung Chen-ying, a graduate of Guilin Art Teachers College, married in 1944 and together, travelled widely in China, creating artworks and holding exhibitions. The couple moved to Hong Kong in 1949 and founded the International Studio of Chinese Art. Over the next two decades, the Chows taught over two thousand students from numerous national origins the art of Chinese painting and their own artworks were shown in exhibitions in England, Japan, Yugoslavia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States of America, and were acquired by museums in France and Italy. In 1968, the Chows immigrated to the United States. They travelled the country widely, giving lectures and holding exhibitions at over twenty universities, finally settling down in Miami. From then until their retirement in 2004, the couple taught students from over thirty countries. Starting in the 1980s, the Chows held numerous invited exhibitions in mainland China and provided generous support to many cultural, educational and athletic institutions in their native Guangdong.

The Chows are widely admired for their renderings of landscapes, bird-and-flower, animals, insects, as well as their calligraphy. Their works reflect the principles and traditions of the Lingnan School of painting in their choice of contemporary themes and the melding of Chinese and Western painting techniques, yet they also have a spontaneity and personality that is distinctly their own. Natural wonders from different parts of the world are abundantly represented in Chow Chian-chiu’s richly coloured ink paintings, infused with oil painting techniques and attending to perspective, light and shade. Chow Leung Chen-ying’s flowers are characterized by delightful colours rendered with bold, fluid strokes. Many of their works are collaborations, including those where one does the painting and the other supplies the inscription.

In 1962, the Chows wrote the authoritative Easy Ways to Do Chinese Painting a celebrated art book and guide published in two volumes and sold over two million times worldwide. They later authored Chinese Painting: A Comprehensive Guide and they received numerous awards for artworks and books. We are honoured to be the recipient of Professor Chee-woo and Grace Po-shan Chow’s generous donation of paintings and books by the talented hands and artistic spirit of their parents, and to present these treasures to our local public.

-University Museum and Art Gallery of The University of Hong Kong