Taikeung Kan
1942
Active since 1967
Taikeung Kan is a Chinese artist and designer, famous for his ink brush paintings, which have been exhibited around the world. His design work has earned him over three hundred awards.
Kan was born in 1942 in China and came to Hong Kong in 1957. Starting from his childhood, he was influenced by his grandfather, Yao Sheung, and has a passion for painting. He worked as a tailor apprentice for a total of ten years before starting his wildly successful career as a designer from 196
Kan was the first designer elected as one of the ‘Hong Kong Ten Outstanding Young Persons’ in 1979, the only designer to receive the Urban Council Design Grand Award in 1984, received Artist of the Year Award – Designer of the Year 1991 and was the first Chinese to be included in Who’s Who in Graphic Design of Switzerland in 1995.
Taikeung Kan, Studio II, Commercial Poster, 1977.
In a 1977 poster design produced for a graphic design course,” a private design school explored the integration of traditional Chinese calligraphy together with the constructive lines borrowed from Western typographic design.
Kan Tai-keung, Shui Mo: The New Spirit of Chinese Tradition,
Exhibition Poster, 1985.
Among the prominent Hong Kong designers to continue with the inclusion of Chinese elements in graphic design was Kan Tai-keung. As a practitioner of modern Chinese shuimo painting, Kan Tai-keung often used Chinese high art objects and brush strokes in his designs. For example, his transitional work between his Chinese style works in the mid-1970s and late-1980s is illustrated by a poster design for Shui Mo: The New Spirit of Chinese Tradition exhibition in 1985. Its black brush strokes, Chinese painting pallet, and red paint formed the basis for his future stylistic signature. The simplicity of the use of only red, white, and black is evidence of the continuity of his style from the late 1970s.
More resource to know Taikeung Kan :
Familiar pattern: How tradition has influenced artist Taikeung Kan