70 years of painting in Hong Kong: artist Brian Tilbrook’s journey from realism to abstract art
- War and Peace would have been an apt title for Hong Kong Arts Centre survey of life’s work of British artist who has lived in the city since 1965
- Tilbrook enjoyed much success as a realist painter until he found himself thinking ‘of what came from within me’ and adopted a semi-abstract style
Hong Kong-based artist Brian Tilbrook’s memories of the second world war, the Korean war, the 1960s riots and the dramatic changes in his adopted home over more than half a century have been distilled into a lifetime of paintings filled with light and darkness, and chaos and order.
Simply titled “A Retrospective”, a wide-ranging selection of his artworks is now on display at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, a venue relevant to the artist’s career given he has worked on numerous sets in its Shouson Theatre for different local theatre companies.
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“There were various things I thought of calling the exhibition,” says the British-born Tilbrook, 86, resident in Hong Kong since 1965. He has settled with “a retrospective” but thinks it sounds “rather dusty”.
Looking out at the serene sea view from his Lamma Island studio, the jovial white-haired artist turns solemn when he suggests that one alternative title for an exhibition summarising 70 years of his works – “War and Peace” – because of the references to history and the strong, visual contrasts present in his work.
