In The Family

Artist and art patron Rosamond Brown and her son, gallerist Ben Brown, reflect on how Hong Kong’s art scene has changed over the past 50 years—and discuss a fund they’ve created to support M+.

- Marianna Cerini

When Rosamond Brown moved to Hong Kong in 1964, she didn’t set out to become one the city’s most prominent art patrons. She slipped into the role as if it simply were the thing to do. That she was only 26, and a painter herself, was no matter.

“My husband Charles and I used to go to shows, which were mostly held in the New Territories, and purchase works we found interesting,” she recalls, speaking on the phone from London, where she currently spends part of her time. “We felt we ought to do our part in helping artists, all the more because I myself was one. But there was no grand plan behind it. We bought the pieces and hung them on the walls of our house.”

A few months after her arrival, Rosamond held a debut solo show at the Chatham Gallery, one of Hong Kong’s first commercial galleries. She presented a second one in 1966. She also began frequenting a now-closed café at City Hall, where local artists met regularly to exchange and discuss ideas. Here, she became acquainted with fellow painters Hon Chi-fun, Gaylord Chan and Cheung Yee, for whom she used to order acrylic paint, which at the time could only be shipped from America, in exchange for lessons on how to use a Chinese brush. “I felt incredibly lucky to be surrounded by such great minds,” she says. “They stimulated me both personally and professionally.”