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Hong Kong Art Today (exhibition)
Hong Kong Art Today (Chinese: 今日的香港藝術) held at the City Hall Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong from 25 May–4 July 1962. Featuring a total of 120 exhibits by 65 artists. "it was the first time ‘Hong Kong art’ was the theme of an exhibition, and it was also the first large-scale art competition organized by the government.”[1] Apart from the usual practice of inviting participating artists, the event also incorporated an open call for submissions which had caught the attention of the local art scene widely.

In his introductory text for the exhibition catalogue, the Museum's curator John Warner explained what he envisioned the 'valid art forms of to-day': “If that artist of to-day sees the world in terms of unified abstract design or explosive blotches of paint, if his pictures remind us of aerial photographs or a nuclear explosion, then at least he is being true to the times in which he lives.”[2]

Significance
The City Hall Museum and Art Gallery (later renamed Hong Kong Museum of Art in 1975), housed in the High Block of the newly built City Hall, a modernist building at the waterfront in Central, Hong Kong back then. This new museum has had a clear-cut policy to promote and recognize “local art”— not Chinese or British/Western art, but Hong Kong art.[3] As a prominent event of the series of inaugural programmes for the new museum/gallery, the survey show Hong Kong Art Today was a manifestation of this agenda.

Though it was an exhibition mounted in a museum setting, the artworks were for sale (prices marked in the catalogue). The City Hall Museum and Art Gallery has acquired some of the exhibits and formed the foundation of the Hong Kong art collection by this official museum.

Controversy
The “open call” was successful in generating immense interest from the local art scene to the event, yet it was the same reason that the exhibition soon became a controversy.

Among the many artists whose works being rejected in the open call, Luis Chan was one of them. Chan, a watercolorists and known for his naturalistic style landscapes, had been active in the local art scene since the 1930s. He had submitted several abstract works – somewhat a new direction of Chan's artistic endeavor, only one of his works got accepted. As an established figure in the 1950s, and being appointed an adviser to the newly established museum, his failure stirred a storm in the art circle, especially when Chan decided to make the rejection public to air his frustrations and addressing the problems of the exhibition. His long article titled “My Unsuccessful Submission to the City Hall Art Exhibition” (大會堂畫展落選記）was published in serial in the local Chinese newspaper Wah Kiu Yat Po over a period of time. [4] [5]

The issues surrounding the debates included: works by some famous artists of the time failed to get in the show through the open call, and many rejected artists were from the same art club, namely the Contemporary Chinese Artists' Guild (Chan was the Chair of the Guild); the obscure criteria of adjudication under the confidentiality of the selection panel; the imbalanced quantity of Chinese paintings and western paintings being selected; and the selections tilted towards abstract art.

The exhibition marked the passé of naturalism in art and favouring of abstract art. In his 2001 article to examine the incident and its consequences Jack Lee, a PhD art history student back then, argued that “[Warner’s] prejudice for modern and abstract art influenced directly the museum's later exhibitions and its collection policies, which in turn caused some artists to turn to abstract art in the hope that their works would become appealing to the museum. Their conversion in due course formed a new tendency in Hong Kong art.”[6]

On a personal level, the rejection was a “career catastrophe” to Luis Chan as described by art historian David Clarke who observed that "for a great part of the 1960s [Chan's] work evidences his loss of artistic security."[7] Chan's trials in abstraction appeared as failure, and his next artistic breakthrough did not come until a decade later.

Artists
The participating artists included: Amy KONG, 江元瑾; CHAN Chingtao, 陳清濤; CHAN Kauon, 陳球安; CHAN Lukkee, 陳錄記; CHAO Shaoan, 趙少昂; CHEN Wingkeen, 陳榮健; CHEUNG Yee, 張義; CHOU Wingchim, 周永沾; CHOW Saitsung, 周世聰; CHUI Yungsang Paul, 徐榕生; Cuy SICHEL; D. G. WYE; David PUN; Douglas BLAND, 白連; Edmund EMAMOODEN; F. WILLIAMS; H. G. HOLLMAN; Jackson YU, 尤紹曾; John HADFIELD, 夏德飛; Julia BARON; K. E. TOMLIN; KING Chialun, 金嘉倫; KONG Pakyu, 江伯魚; KUO Venchi, 郭文基; KWONG Yeuting, 鄺耀鼎; LI Fanping, 李汎萍; LI Mancheung,李文彰; LAI Ming, 黎明; LAM Chaktin, 林澤鈿; LAM Chunfai David, 林鎮輝; LAM Kintung, 林建同; LAU Ytong, 劉煒堂; LEE Kwokwing, 李國榮; LEE Laudan, 李流丹; LEUNG Pakyu, 梁伯譽; LEUNG Sikchong, 梁錫莊; LO Kuichuen, 盧巨川; LU Wuye, 陸無涯; LUI Chanming, 呂燦銘; LUI Shoukwan, 呂壽琨; Luis CHAN, 陳福善; MAN TAM Waiha, 譚慧霞; J.P. POTTER; Marianne SCHIOLL; Mavis BAKER; Mrs HOLZBURGER; HON Chifun, 韓志勳; Gilbert PAN, 潘士超; PANG Jen, 彭楨; Raymond KONG, 江從新; Rose WU, 鄔玉笙; Roy RIDGEWAY; SUNG Cheyuen, 宋志元; TSE Kongwah, 謝江華; Wendy YEO; John WARNER; WONG Kachai, 黃家齊; WONG Hoyin, 黃浩然; WONG Michael Cheung, 黃祥; WONG Poyeh, 黃般若; WONG Puiwoo, 黃佩瑚; Wucius WONG, 王無邪; Y. ELIAS; YANG Shanshen, 楊善深; YEN Eking, 嚴以敬