黃般若 Huang Bore
生平 Biography
黃般若 (1901-1968)，名鑒波，號萬千，1901年生於廣東東莞。黃年少喪父，隨母寄居畫家叔父黃少梅廣州之家，並隨其習畫，1949年定居香港。他的花鳥畫師法華喦，山水宗石濤，人物工陳洪綬。黃氏精研佛學，同時洞悉中國傳統文化優越的一面，對中西畫之異同進行過客觀的分析，堅持「在傳統的基礎上發展中國畫」，提倡水墨傳統，強調意筆的「似與不似」精粹。
1923年黃與趙浩公、潘致中、黃少梅、盧振寰等八人在廣州組成「癸亥合作畫社」，畫社後來更擴展成為「國畫研究會」。其時，以方人定為首的新派國畫家認為「國畫研究會」提倡的風格「保守」、「守舊」，黃氏撰文反擊，引發時稱新舊畫派之爭，筆戰最後由葉恭綽調解結束。
黃定居香港之前，遍覽神州名山大川，並得見不少歷代書畫藏品，曾任《非非畫報》及《廣東文物特輯》編輯，參與出版《廣東文物》等刊物。與張大千、黃賓虹等 以書畫論交。1949年 後，黃積極參與香港的畫壇活動。自1956年，每週遠足寫生，足跡踏遍港九新界荒山野嶺，窮鄉僻壤，離島漁村，並以之入畫，創作不少以香港為題的新派水墨作品，其中最為人熟悉的有《木屋大火》、《九龍火舌圖》等。
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Huang Bore (1901-1968), also known as Jianbo, sobriquet Wanqian, was born in Dongguan, Guangdong Province in 1901. His father died when he was young. He and his mother went to Guangzhou and lived with his uncle Huang Shaomei who taught him painting. He settled in Hong Kong after 1949. He took up the style of Hua Yan for his flower-and-bird paintings, Shitao for his landscapes, and Chen Hongshou for his figure paintings. He was interested in Buddhist philosophy and treasured the values of traditional culture. He studied the differences between Chinese and Western painting and concluded that the development of Chinese painting should be based on ancient traditions. He promoted traditional ink painting and emphasized the abstract quality of brushwork.
In 1923, Huang founded the Guihai Art Cooperative with Zhao Haogong, Pan Zhizhong, Huang Shaomei, Lu Zhenhuan and other painters in Guangzhou. The Cooperative later developed into the National Painting Research Society. A contemporary of Huang, Fang Rending criticized the Society as “conservative” and “old-fashioned” in the news media. Huang published articles to fight back and started off a series of debates between the “new and old schools”.
During his stay in the mainland, Wong travelled extensively. He also got the chance to study various collections of ancient painting and calligraphy. He was the editor of Feifei Pictorial and a special issue of Guangdong Cultural Relics, and participated in compiling the three great volumes of Guangdong Cultural Relics. He befriended many famous painters and theorists such as Zhang Daqian and Huang Binhong. After he settled in Hong Kong, he was active as a painter, curator, and organizer of many exhibitions. After 1956, he travelled widely across the territory and did sketching of every scene he visited. His two famous works, Huts on Fire and Fire in Kowloon, were based on the actual scene of a fire outbreak he witnessed.
