A native of Maoming County in Guangdong province, Ting Yin Yung (1902–1978) first studied Western painting in Tokyo at the Kawabata Painting School in 1920, and then at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. He began working in mainland China in 1925, before emigrating to Hong Kong in 1949, where he developed his artistic practice as a painter, seal carver and greatly admired teacher.

Originally trained in Western methods, Ting became increasingly interested in Chinese ink painting. He also mastered traditional subjects such as bird-and-flower paintings, which are remarkable for their nuanced saturation of pigment and his one-stroke technique. A great admirer of Ming and Qing dynasty paintings, Ting’s artistic style is striking for its abstract simplicity, which is indicative of a departure from his predecessors’ realistic representations. His use of line, void and space exemplifies his contribution to the formulation of a contemporary Chinese style that was in part informed by his study of ancient oracle bone scripts, and also emerged in parallel with his abstract oil paintings beginning in the 1960s. He was equally known for his profuse employment of personal seals that illustrate an abstract language of their own and established Ting as a prolific and distinctive seal carver.

UMAG’s exhibition and publication are authoritative in their display of Ting’s oil and ink paintings, watercolours, sketches and seals, all of which cover the most productive decades of his working life in Hong Kong. The project is also highly community-centred, as the development of this project benefited greatly from the input of Ting’s students, who continue to treasure their master’s passion, and the instructive lessons and conversations that nurtured a generation of local artists.