Celebrating the centenary of Georges Mathieu’s birth, K11 Art Foundation and the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong & Macau present “Calligraphy Rhapsody”, a retrospective devoted to the artist, from 19 May to 4 July 2021 at the K11 Art & Cultural Centre (K11 MUSEA, Hong Kong). Curated by Catherine Kwai and opened on the eve of Art Basel Hong Kong, it is the largest retrospective exhibition devoted to Mathieu in Hong Kong to date.
Fourteen major paintings spanning forty years of work, from the “calligraphic period” of the 1950s to the “cosmic” shift begun in 1984, retrace the career of the founder of Lyrical Abstraction, the movement that connected the School of Paris with the New York School in the early 1950s.
The Georges Mathieu Committee contributes two rare films showing Mathieu painting in public in Osaka in 1957 and in Vienna in 1959. Frédéric Rossif’s documentary Georges Mathieu ou La fureur d’être (“Georges Mathieu or the Fury of Being”) is also screened daily. Lectures with Christie’s Education, guided tours and conversations, including an interview with Édouard Lombard, director of the Committee, conducted by Denise Tsui for CoBo Social, accompany the exhibition.
See the exhibition presentation by Kwai Fung Hin gallery and Tatler Asia’s coverage of the opening night.
In the end, the exhibition welcomed 29,000 visitors over forty-seven days.