Page 51 - 2020 December 1 Bonhams Hong Kong, Eternal Music in Chinese art

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HUANG BANRUO (1901-1968)
Ladies and Guqin
Ink and colour on silk, signed by the artist reading
Huang Banruo fang Ma Yuan ben (Huang Banruo
painted after Ma Yuan’s style), with one collector’s seal
reading Lishi Shiyou jiancang, framed and glazed.
126cm (49 3/4in) long x 51cm (20in) wide.
HKD80,000 - 100,000
US$10,000 - 13,000
This painting depicts a lady sitting in front of a black-
lacquered guqin while being served by a young
attendant holding a red tray with an incense burner
beneath two high palm trees; another lady walking
to her in a red-fenced garden decorated with rocks
and camellias, the artist’s signature in the lower
section of the palm tree.

Huang Banruo, or Wong Po-Yeh in Cantonese, was
a leading artist in Guangzhou and Hong Kong in the
first half of the 20th century. His career started in
1923, when he joined the traditionalist camp of Zhao
Haogong, Pan He and others in the Guihai Painting
Cooperative. A key member of the largest art group
in southern China, Huang engaged Gao Jianfu’s
students in a series of debates in the press. The
latter was considered as the vanguard of modernism
in Chinese art, while Huang stood on the side of
tradition. A traditionalist but never a conservative,
Huang devoted his life to the reformation of
traditional Chinese painting. He moved to Hong
Kong permanently in 1949, then became active
in organising exhibitions, teaching students and
helping local museums expand their collections.
His contribution to modern Chinese art was further
recognised at a national level after his death when
the China Artist’s Association held a conference
accompanying an exhibition of The World of Wong
Po-yeh at the National Art Museum of China in
Beijing in 1997.

Li Shiyou (also known as Jack Lee, 1916-2015), a
native of Taishan, Guangzhou, studied in Lingnan
University and moved to Hong Kong after the
Second World War. He was the founder of Orient-
City, the largest Chinese club in Hong Kong before
the 1990s, and was well known for his collection of
modern Cantonese art works.

黃般若（1901-1968），名鑑波，字般若，號萬
千，別號四無恙齋主，東莞人。1923年，年僅二
十二歳的黃般若參加趙浩公、潘龢等人的傳統派陣
營「癸亥合作社」。1925年「合作社」擴大為「
國畫研究會」，成為當時華南最大的美術團體。稍
後他更作為「國畫研究會」的主將，與高劍父的學
生展開筆戰。1949年黃氏定居港，他積極參與本地
的文藝活動，組織大、小展覽數十個，並參加「圓
社」、「丙申社」、「庚子書畫會」等，復於《星
島日報》、《華僑日報》、《大公報》等報刊發表
文章。1997年，北京中國美術館舉辦了「黃般若的
藝術世界」展覽，並由中國美術家協會主辦了一次
高層次的研討會。中國藝術界肯定了他對革新傳統
中國畫的貢獻，並確立了他在中國近代藝術史上重
要的地位。

李時佑（1916-2015），廣東台山人，少時就讀於
嶺南大學，戰後移居香港，創辦海城大酒樓。雅愛
藝事，富藏嶺南名家作品。