About Lo Koon Chiu

Mr. Lo is a native of Shunde in Guangdong. He was born in 1918. He learned Chinese painting in his secondary school years. In 1934, he was admitted into the only art school in Huanan at that time (Art College of Guangzhou). He majored in Western painting and later studied sculpture and graphic design. The Japanese invasion of China occurred during his graduation year and Guangzhou was occupied. During the war, he fought against the invaders and joined the guerrilla forces in occupied areas and worked as the warzone political guide and as the artistic director of the arts promotion team until the end of the war. Having served his terms in the military, he then became a secondary school teacher.

He arrived in Hong Kong in 1947 and worked as the art director of advertising companies. As he noticed that there was a lack of children's extended reading material and that the content of the comic strips was meaningless and lacked educational value, he founded the first children's book with full-colour printing -- "Children's Paradise" biweekly in 1953 with the Union Press Ltd. Mr. Lo Koon-chiu was editor-in-chief of the publication for 30 years. The biweekly reader is acclaimed to be a monument of time in the field of publications for children. Mr. Lo retired in 1983.

Since then, Mr. Lo has devoted himself to the education of talents and has presented the lecture series "Introduction to Art" in the Department of Art of the Wah Kiu College, King Wai College, Ching Wa College and in various art institutes in Kuala Lumpur and in Malaysia. During 1979-1985, he lectured on Chinese flower and bird painting and figure painting in the School of Continuing Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has been invited to many international painting exhibitions and has held five personal painting exhibitions. Recently, he has organised many teacher-student exhibitions giving encouragement to the new generation of artists. He has also organised the Hong Kong Chinese Paintings Promotion Federation and the Hong Kong Chinese Association of Figure Painting. At present, he is the Chairman of the Hong Kong Lan Ting Society and a tutor of the Royal Hong Kong Police Painting and Calligraphy Club.

As for art criticism and reviews, Mr. Lo Koon-chiu has held discussions with Mr. Tam Shek-wing in the magazines "The Eighties" and the "Ming Pao Monthly" about Hong Kong contemporary paintings and in the column titled "From aesthetics and arts to contemporary paintings". He has also published "The nature of arts" in the art column of the "New Evening Post". He was also invited by the Hong Kong Museum of History to host the lecture series "Children's Literature" and has acted as critic of the works of several Chinese artists.

Mr. Lo is a prolific artist. His major works include the water and ink painting now in the collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, titled "Hundred Children in the Festivals of the Four Seasons" in four scrolls. Each scroll is 20 feet long and depicts vividly and comprehensively the customs and lifestyles of the children of the Lingnan area. His recent works include Chinese hisorical paintings "Confucius Teaching at Home" and "A Grand Banquet". Attached to each painting is his well-documented study of each respective painting in thousands of words. His principle is that all new artforms should be developed creatively from substantial content.