Koo Mei: More than a Lark

Nicknamed "Little Lark", Carrie Koo Mei is one of the great Chinese songstresses of the 1950s and 60s — and is still fondly remembered today for singing the title song of that classic tearjerker Love Without End (1961) — but did you know that she is also a remarkable painter?

When I was in Hong Kong I had the rare opportunity to see an exhibition of her amazing work at the University Museum and Art Gallery. Believe it or not, Carrie has been painting since 1963, back when she was still singing and acting at Shaw Brothers. Her teachers included Chao Shao-an, master of the Lingnan School of Painting; Hu Nien-tsu; and Lui Shou-kwan, founder of the Zen-inspired New Ink Movement.

After learning from some of the best Chinese ink painters of the 20th century, Koo Mei charted her own course and developed a unique style that combines the realism of the Lingnan School with the free form of the New Ink Movement. The title of the exhibition, "The Cloud and Mist Weaver", perfectly describes the effortless and ephemeral beauty of Koo Mei's paintings. As Yeung Chun-tong, the director of the University Museum and Art Gallery, writes in his introduction to the exhibit:

Landscape painting offers a medium for Koo Mei to seek her personal ideal. All her compositions, be they depictions of actual mountains and rivers or of imagined scenery, reflect the beauty of nature as she sees it in her heart. Without deliberately painting abstract pictures, nor transforming majestic mountains and flowing streams into mere brush strokes and symbols, she simply expresses her emotions in the free-form clouds, haze, mist and fog, transporting her audience to the highest heaven, unrestricted by form, shape and colour.

Indeed, as I looked at the landscapes delicately woven by Koo Mei, I was transported from the hustle and bustle of one of the world's densest cities to a place of blissful solitude.

Here are two paintings from the show that I scanned from the exhibition brochure.


A Morning Rehearsal by Koo Mei


Cool Lighting by Koo Mei

If you'd like to see more of Koo Mei's paintings, you can visit her online gallery at the Hong Kong Art Archive.

P.S.: Did you notice Carrie's Spiderman shirt in the photo above?!