Feng Zikai (豐子愷 1898 - 1975) empowered his calligraphic styled cartoon artwork with Buddha-nuture (佛性) not only by employing the concept of simplicity, but also some of the basic competences that every human should have. How great the exhibition is? Well, in my opinion, it's brilliantly fabulous. Mr. Feng's paintings not merely depict the most admired minimalistic style with embedded Buddhist concept, also implicitly (or peacefully if you like) hiding metaphors beneath. More importantly, he got ton of sense of humor in his artworks. Other than the works, plenty of quotes are printed on the wall.
"My advocacy of life preservation is not meant to value animal, but human lives."
"Snow melts. Flowers wither. Dragonflies perish. What is so pitiful in all these? A pity is when beautiful scenes are destroyed arbitrarily. This is unethical and therefore non-artistic."
These quotes are interestingly enough for everyone to read, but not to understand. Me neither. Our behaviors somewhat reflect what we are thinking, and of course we do it for our own good. However, how many time when you do a thing which is for your soul's sake and not for your own good?"A person not only has his or her heart but also that of others. Therefore we need to think about others in addition to ourselves.""Art tends to be empathetic in particular, and artists are more affectionate. In other words, artists must be kind and benevolent and thus they must treasure all kinds of life. Unless absolutely necessary, they do not harm the environment and other form of life deliberately or without reason."
Hong Kong Museum of Art is now concurrently hosting two Feng Zikai's exhibitions. One is "Creating a World of Compassion" Chinese Fine Art Gallery 4/F and the other is "Cultivating Life and Soul" in Contemporary Hong Kong Art Gallery 2/F. Exhibitions Until 25th July 2012
Here some documentary video produced by RTHK. (Cantonese Only)