The Dream Garden
Oil on canvas 2005
91 x 116 cm
(Photo courtesy of Joseph Lee)

The Village
Oil on canvas 2000
51 x 61 cm
(Photo courtesy of Joseph Lee)

Leaves Withered
Oil on canvas 2007
61 x 91 cm
(Photo courtesy of Joseph Lee)

Back to Nature: paintings by Joseph Lee
7 November to 16 December 2007

The University Museum and Art Gallery of The University of Hong Kong is pleased to present an exhibition, "Back to Nature", featuring 60 of the latest oil paintings by Hong Kong artist, Joseph Lee. Born in Hong Kong in 1940, Joseph Lee was educated in Hong Kong, majoring in Mathematics at the University of Hong Kong. Lee is fond of Chinese literature and art. Influenced by both Chinese and Western art and culture, Lee's paintings are a mixture of both.

On show will be paintings by Lee painted in Western media and techniques to achieve the Chinese spirit of "becoming one with the universe". Both his art and his philosophy of living are inspired by nature, which Lee finds it a strongly poetic and lyrical force. Through paintings, Lee expresses his philosophy.

Lee's paintings are characterized by their exuberant hues and complementary palette in a style associated with the landscape paintings of masters such as Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh. Yet nature in Lee's canvas is a sacred aura. When admiring his paintings, one may experience a sense of alienation. We are like the figures in the paintings, dissolving into the background; we embrace nature yet we are outsiders admiring the paintings.

Beside painting, Joseph Lee is also an accomplished poet. Lee has written poetry to accompany the works in this exhibition.