IRENE CHOU (ZHOU LÜYUN, 1924-2011)

Irene Chou was born in Shanghai in 1924 and worked as a journalist after graduating from St. John’s University in 1945. Upon arriving in Hong Kong in 1949, Chou began to study Chinese painting under Lingnan master Zhao Shao’ang. Her career as an artist reached a breakthrough in the early 1960s when she met Lui Shou Kwan, leader and pioneer of the New Ink Painting Movement that gained momentum in Hong Kong.

Under Lui's influence, Chou began to explore the concept of the origin of life and Chinese philosophy of Zen and Taoism. Irene Chou conveyed her powerful, explosive expressions and emotions of human life and the universe through uninhibited brushwork and the use of bold colours, lines and spheres. Her works are contemplative, intimate and moving at once.