Straight from the heart

A naive charm is the hallmark of the mysterious artworks by Gaylord Chan - an iconic painter and a champion of contemporary art during its early days in Hong Kong. An ongoing show at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center throws light on Chan's long and multifaceted career. Mariella Radaelli reports.

More than 100 works by the iconic modernist Hong Kong painter Gaylord Chan (1925-2020) are on show at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center (ASHK). Chan is among the city's early exponents of contemporary art, recognized widely for the deceptive simplicity of his paintings. An engineer by training, Chan did not take up painting until he was 42. However, soon afterward, he came to be regarded as one of the most prolific artists in the city. Besides making his mark as a highly respected art teacher, Chan was also active in advancing the cause of contemporary art, having co-founded the Hong Kong Visual Arts Society in 1974. Always ahead of the curve, by 2001 Chan had embraced digital art, though this was also done out of necessity.

"He switched to using computers 2001 onwards, after he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was physically unable to paint on canvas," says Joyce Wong, who curated the ASHK exhibition, Never End: The Art and Life of Gaylord Chan.

Chan was quick to appreciate the flexibility of digital media. In a 2011 interview with a Hong Kong daily, he said that he enjoyed being able to "experiment with color combinations and alter them with a mouse click".