Although also active as a curator and gallerist, Hans van Dijk was above all a gifted archivist, whose staggering life’s work, the Lexicon and Library of 5000 artists active in China, born between 1880 and 1980, provides a unique source of information about 100 years of Chinese art. After his untimely passing in 2002, Van Dijk left behind both a digital and a physical archive, comprising of photographs, articles, catalogues, newspaper clippings and more.
Anthony Yung, Senior Researcher at Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong), will present his work on digitizing Hans van Dijk’s archive and making it available online to researchers across the globe. Given the impressive amount of artists Van Dijk worked with during his time in China, his archive will play an important role in future research on the history of contemporary art in China.