Cheung Yee (Zhang Yi), Chinese Abstract Modernist Signed Lithograph Hong Kong Modern Art, c.1980s

Cheung Yee 張義 (b. 1936)
Born in Guangzhou, China, Cheung Yee graduated from the Fine Art Department of Taiwan Normal University in 1958, and five years later he formed the Circle Group with other local artists in Taiwan. In 1965, Cheung received a grant to travel the USA and Europe, exploring the discovering Western artists and their key influences and practices. Hong Kong- born Cheung Yee, a renowned sculptor and painter now residing in the U.S, is famous for being the first Chinese sculptor to create a modernised adaptation of ancient Chinese elements, inspired from western art forms, and presenting his intriguing, new-world take on Asian ancestral cultural codes to a Western audience.

Most renowned for his cast paper murals developed in the 1970s, Cheung Yee is widely regarded as the pioneer of the contemporary art movement in Hong Kong. His artistic innovation and contributions have also won him The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Member class (MBE) in 1979 conferred by the Queen of England. With over a hundred exhibitions organised world wide since he started his career, Cheung holds the record as the only living artist in the history of Hong Kong to have been specially invited to exhibit three solo-exhibitions at the prestigious Hong Kong Museum of Art.

Cheung was a professor of Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong until 1998, the chairman of the Hong Kong Sculptors’ Association, as well as advisor to the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Today he continues to create masterful artworks from his home in California, U.S.A.

Possessing a rare perception in art, his works reflect elements from a myriad of subjects including early American art, Egyptian art, ancient Chinese philosophy, geomancy, among various others; all of which are uniquely interpreted to result in works that are evidently distinct. Archaic touches from the East, like a profound Chinese poem from the distant past or cryptic primitive symbols from a forgotten time, are delicately blended into his cast paper works.

Four Spirits & the Sanfuhuangtu
An interesting theme that Cheung’s art projects is the Sanfuhuangtu 《三辅黄图》 (Annotations on the Rule of the Yellow Emperor). This ancient literary text is propelled to life by his individualistic bronze sculptural works which express the xuanwu 玄武, represented by the combined form of the tortoise and the snake. Consequently, a keen observer may notice that a number of his sculptures such as the Magic Nine and Four Spirits show spatial openings, symbolic of the tortoise shell, and worm-like figures, representative of the snake.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Cheung Yee Solo Exhibition, 2008, iPreciation, Singapore
Perceptive Impressions, 2005, Galerie de Monde, Hong Kong
Public Collections

Hong Kong Museum of Art
Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City
National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan
Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
Taiwan Museum of Art, Tai Chung, Taiwan
Kaohsiung Fine Arts Museum
Images of artworks