The Art and Research of Professor Wan Qingli (1945-2017)

Universities in Hong Kong have long attracted scholars from around the world to live and work in the city. Professor Wan Qingli (1945-2017), a distinguished art historian and artist, was one such figure. Born and trained in Beijing with further studies in the United States, he came to work in Hong Kong from 1989 and stayed there until his retirement in 2011. He was a professor at the Department of Fine Arts, The University of Hong Kong, and from 2006 the founding Director and Chair Professor in Visual Arts at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University. As an art historian, Professor Wan is best known for his work on Chinese painting of the 19th and 20th centuries – areas of study that were still relatively new when he started his research career. His identity as a painter and his personal connections and friendship with major artists, such as Li Keran (19071989), Lu Yanshao (1909-1993) and Wu Zuoren (1908-1997), gave him unique, first-hand insight and understanding of the development of modern Chinese painting. As a painter, he studied and practiced in the brush-and-ink tradition, based of which he developed his own style that was at times witty and satirical. His life experiences, artistic practice and scholarship led Wan to develop strong and clearly articulated views concerning the history of Chinese painting and its future.