Pat Suet-Bik Hui & the Three Perfections
20 September 2025 to 28 June 2026
About Pat Suet-Bik Hui & the Three Perfections
This exhibition celebrates the work of Pat Suet-Bik Hui 許雪碧 (b. 1943), a US-based Hong Kong artist, shown alongside others who explore the tradition of the ‘three perfections’ 三絕 – the harmonious blending of poetry, calligraphy, and painting.
Featuring works by Hui, her contemporaries, her teacher Lui Shou-Kwan, and artists of his generation, as well as earlier examples from the 17th to 19th centuries, the exhibition offers a rich context for understanding Hui as both an innovator and a guardian of tradition.
In this artistic lineage, calligraphic brushstrokes carry as much compositional weight as painted forms, while poetry and imagery combine to create expressions neither can achieve alone.
Hui’s contemporary approach merges abstract and semi-abstract ink and colour washes with understated calligraphy, inscribing poems that reflect on themes including love, loss, and the quiet joys of drinking.
Visitors will find translations of many inscribed poems and guidance on interpreting the interplay of painting, calligraphy, and poetry within individual works.
Hui gifted her paintings to art historian Michael Sullivan, whose collection was bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum in 2013.
Tickets
Booking information
Price:
Free
Location:
Gallery 11
