Hung Hsien: Between Worlds

Description

Between Worlds, co-organised by Asia Society Hong Kong Center and Asia Society Texas, highlights the work of Hung Hsien, positioning her as a vital yet under-recognised figure in mainstream art history. As the first chapter of Celebration of Ink, a two-part series on the legacy of contemporary ink art, the exhibition foregrounds her singular approach, shaped by a transnational career bridging Chinese tradition and Western abstraction.

Trained under scholar-painter Prince Pu Ru in Taiwan before relocating to the United States in 1958, Hung absorbed the influences of abstract expressionism and surrealism, translating their energy into ink. By the mid-1960s, she had developed a bold, hybrid style defined by lyrical brushwork, abstract structures and striking colour fields. As one of the few women associated with Taiwan’s Fifth Moon Group, she contributed to a pivotal movement that reimagined ink painting for the modern era.