Hoo Mojong the most innovative Asian of new modernism
Trailblazer Hoo Mojong key bridge to East and West in the 20th century
Watching a Painting Exhibition, 1980, Oil on Canvas, Hoo Mojong
Hoo Mojong true original
When describing an artist’s style requires more than a few name-drops as comparison, the artist Hoo Mojong may truly be original.
Left: Fruit Series, 1994, Oil on canvas, Right: Pumpkin and Green Onions, 1990, Oil on canvas, Hoo Mojong
That was the impression from entering Objects of Play by Hoo Mojong, where Watching a Painting Exhibition is mounted on a dramatic red pedestal at the entrance of the exhibit.
This first painting depicts the backs of three children’s heads gazing into a darkened art gallery (not unlike our own viewing conditions for this exhibit).
Rene Magritte Surrealism
The children in the painting study a picture of a bright yellow baguette that seems to glow from within and a ghostly blue hand that attempts to reach for it.
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At once, the painting recalls the surrealism and mystery of Rene Magritte, the impressionist colours of Cezanne, and the social realism of Courbet while altogether being a painting of its own category.
Two Fishes, 1972, Etching, Hoo Mojong
It is perhaps this blend of cultures and styles stemming from Hoo Mojong’s unique emigre story that makes her work difficult to be “systematically studied, classified, or defined within international art historical discourse.”
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Hoo Mojong was born in Ningbo in 1924 and raised in Shanghai against the backdrop of the Sino-Japanese War. She worked in a factory during the day while attending art classes at night.
Career in 1940s
This exhibit traces her career beginning in the late 1940s with moves to Taiwan, then Sao Paulo, and Paris, where she stayed for almost thirty years before returning to Shanghai in 1996.
Father and Daughter, 1973, Etching, Hoo Mojong
Hoo’s artistic journey began in Sao Paulo, where she honed her craft in relative obscurity. Many of her early works here are largely unaccounted for and scattered throughout Latin America.
Latin America influences
Nonetheless, this exhibit brings together several pieces from that period.
From Left to Right: Still Life on the Table, 1957: Figure Series Nude Woman, 1958: Lily Still Life, 1956: Still Life, 1954, all Oil on Canvas, Hoo Mojong
In Still Life on the Table, 1957 and Lily Still Life, 1956, Hoo infuses her works with a rich tapestry of colour using the thick applications of paint with a deft brush and palette knife.
Hoo Mojong elevated daily objects
Even early on in her art career, Hoo emphasises the objects of daily life that are readily available to her and seems to develop a dramatic flair for portraying light.
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In Still Life on the Table the yellow of the lemon and table, set against the dark green and red of the room, seems to glow from within.
Red, Green and Yellow Apples, Undated, Oil on canvas, Hoo Mojong
The primary colours from Lily Still Life too evoke the similar inner light from the flower petals.
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The art conveys an idea that Hoo later articulates, that “What an artist paints doesn’t matter. I paint what I’m familiar with, what I can see every day, which is just a vessel for my thought.”
Artistic ideals imbued
This idea, that any object may be imbued with the artist’s meaning echoes the philosophies of Social Realism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism throughout the Americas.
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In Sao Paulo specifically, during the years in which Hoo was there (1950s-65), there would have been a vibrant arts centre with the establishment of the Sao Paulo Biennial.
Green Grocery and Red Fish, 1985, Oil on Canvas, Hoo Mojong
It is at this colourful event where the works of the significant art movements of the day, Social Realism from Diego Rivera, Abstract Impressionist works from Jackson Pollack, and French Surrealism pieces would have displayed together.
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Interestingly, Hoo’s final year in Sao Paulo (1965) coincided with the Sao Paulo Biennale’s first dedicated Surrealist gallery–a movement that would leave clear traces in her work.
Figure Series 30, 1985, Oil on Canvas, Hoo Mojong
That same year marked the beginning of Brazil’s military dictatorship, which brought censorship and suppression of the arts. It’s hard imagining that these events didn’t shape some part of her decision to leave.
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In pursuit of a new haven for her art, Hoo Mojong arrived in Paris where she turned down the prestigious L’Ecole des Beaux Arts for the freedom of independent development at the L’Academie de Chaumier.
Salon des Femmes Peintres
Within three years of her move, Hoo’s Toy Series won the major award at the Salon des Femmes Peintres and earned her acclaim.
From left to right: Wheat Bread, 1975, Oil on canvas: Toy Series 11, 1968, Oil on canvas: Knot, 1970, Oil on canvas, Hoo Mojong
This seminal work is displayed in the Objects of Play exhibition, along with her figure studies which pushed the abstraction of her work.
French Bread, 1985, Oil on Canvas, Hoo Mojong
Hoo’s devotion to the ordinary is even more apparent in the still life gallery where she creates large-scale paintings of common items such as bread and apples.
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Her Bread Series shows the cracks of a freshly baked sourdough against a blue backdrop. Another depicts a farmer cradling bread like a baby.
Bread Series 8, 1990-2003, Oil on Canvas, Hoo Mojong
In Seven Grosses of Apples, Hoo paints baskets of apples with her signature, holy light–making them glow like bulbs in a muddled brown background where the presence of the labourer is symbolised by a thatched straw hat.
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The apples and bread, so carefully, lovingly drawn, almost seem surreal. Her use of primary colours and rendering of light draws focus to the humble objects of each painting, honouring them with contemplation and attention.
Seven Grosses of Apples, 1978, Oil on Canvas, Hoo Mojong
Her use of darkened negative space too allows her objects to stand out in an ethereal way.
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The contrasting pull she creates between foreground and background, between light and dark, for me, depicts a psychological tension between scarcity and abundance, between the mundane and ideal–a frail moment of everyday luxury that might vanish in a moment.
Post-war world
This could easily reflect her economic scarcity as an artist in Paris, but beyond that, of her observations in the post-war world around her.
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It could have been her way to deal with the aftermath of war which could be felt globally–and where she may have had unique understanding from multiple vantage points through travel (from China to Sao Paulo to Europe and back).
Hoo Mojong Exhibition
In her printmaking, Hoo continues to orient herself as part of the labouring class. The single-colour focus in each of her etchings, Harvest, Scarecrow, Think all emphasise the items that symbolise the work–the apple, the pestle, the bandana.
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Though not exactly political, Hoo’s focus on subject matter can be seen, retrospectively, as a reflection of the politics of her time.
From Left to Right: Mending Net (Fisherman), 1968, Etching: Scarecrow, 1971, Etching: Think, 1969, Etching, Hoo Mojong
Hoo’s return to Shanghai after over forty-six years abroad culminated in her first solo exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum where she donated multiple works. She continued to remain active in the Chinese and Shanghai arts community until her death in 2012.
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Her artistic journey provokes more curiosity, more questions than answers. At first, one could see her travels as worldly and trailblazing, and that, it may have been. But they could also be seen as escape, just as her art suggests.
Watching a Painting Exhibition, 1980, Oil on Canvas, Hoo Mojong
Perhaps the best illustration is the opening work, Watching a Painting Exhibition where the pale hand reaches for the glowing bread–essential to the hand’s physical survival.
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Then come the children who are drawn to the lighted painting, where pleasure is essential to their existence. And us, the viewers from the future grasping at the elusive idea of this painting–that is essential to the legacy of making art.
From Left to Right: Rowing a Boat, 2005: A Corner in Village, 1998: Two Baskets of Apples, 1978, all Oil on canvas, Hoo Mojong
Yet the crux in each of these three frames–the bread, the art, the idea–can easily and quickly give way to the darkness, the nothingness which seems to surround Hoo, surround us.
Buy Bread, 1972, Etching, Hoo Mojong
Hoo Mojong’s art is intriguing, spellbinding and even puzzling at times–but it certainly makes you think, which could be the artist’s exact point.
Text Anne Jiao and photos Anne Jiao & Cammy Yiu
