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Mr. SZETO Yuen Kit

Former Chief Curator
(Chih Lo Lou & Wu Guanzhong Collections)
Hong Kong Museum of Art (Hong Kong)

Fellowship Project

Mr. Szeto Yuen Kit spent four and a half months (March – July 2016) at The British Museum in London, the U.K. During the fellowship, he also visited other museums in Europe and conducted research on their Chinese painting collections. His research encompassed the provenance, establishment and collecting history as well as curatorship of these collections, with an aim to learn how the museums interpret and present Chinese art in a contemporary context. The fellowship gave rise to networking opportunities and joint projects between the museums, including exhibitions.

Biography

Mr. Szeto Yuen Kit, before his retirement from the Hong Kong Museum of Art, has been the Curator (Xubaizhai Collection) and the Chief Curator (Chih Lo Lou & Wu Guanzhong Collections). He received his B. Ed Degree from the University of Warwick, U.K., M. Phil in Chinese art history from The University of Hong Kong, and Diploma in Museum Studies from the University of Sydney, Australia. His field of research covers the late Ming and 20th century Chinese paintings as well as Chinese art education.

Recent Development and Achievement

    Mr. Szeto Yuen Kit was in charge of the two new donations and exhibition galleries in the Hong Kong Museum of Art: The Chih Lo Lou Ancient Chinese Painting & Calligraphy and the Wu Guanzhong Collections. He was involved in research, organization of exhibitions and educational activities. Loan out exhibitions in 2021-2022 were the Wu Guanzhong Collection to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the Chih Lo Lou Collection to the Cernuschi Museum in Paris. In 2022, he published his book Wu Guanzhong.Hong Kong.Museum of Art. Recently, he has engaged in art education programs and lectures for educational institutions and art societies in Hong Kong. He has also conducted series of TV and radio programs on Chinese art appreciation, including An Aesthetic Encounter: Ancient Chinese Painting, A Journey into Wu Guanzhong’s Jinagnan and The Culture of the Palace Museum in Hong Kong.

Selected Publication(s)

Book

  • Szeto, Y. K. (2022). Wu Guanzhong.Hong Kong .Museum of Art. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Museum of Art.

Catalogue Entries

  • Szeto, Y. K. (2022). “From Private to Public: the Chih Lo Lou Collection in the History of Private Painting and Calligraphy Collecting” in The Chih Lo Lou Collection of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: Song to Qing (pp. 20-29). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Museum of Art.
  • Szeto, Y. K. (2019). From dung basket to dinning cart: the Wu Guanzhong collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art. In From Dung Basket to Dinning Cart: 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Wu Guanzhong (pp. 30-41). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Museum of Art.
  • Szeto, Y. K. (2019). Shining emblems of nobleness: characteristics of the Ming loyalists in the Chin Lo Lou collection. In The Chih Lo Lou Collection of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: Ming Loyalists (pp. 23-31). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Museum of Art.

Journal articles

  • 司徒元傑(2022)。〈化私為公――香港藝術館虛白齋與至樂樓中國書畫藏品〉。
    《「中國書畫收藏的時空」――關西中國書畫收藏研究會成立十週年國際研討會論文集》,頁83-93。日本:澄懷堂美術館。
  • 司徒元傑(2021)。〈明末清初畫派與畫家關係之探討──以蕪湖畫家蕭雲從為典型〉。《故宮博物院院刊》,225,頁97-108。
  • 司徒元傑(2020)。〈走出傳統,吳冠中典藏垂範〉。《典藏.古美術》,329,頁74-85。
  • Szeto, Y.K. (2019). To Know, to Love and to Enjoy: The Chih Lo Lou Collection and the History of Private Collecting of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy. Arts of Asia, May-June 2019, 84-93.

TV and Radio Art Education Programs