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Taiwan 2001 |
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The Arts |
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PaintingOnly a limited amount of traditional Chinese painting was practiced in 18th and 19th century Taiwan. Works produced at the time were mostly amateur paintings of landscapes and flowers by scholars or government officials sent from the mainland. This art would have little influence on later artistic developments. Western-style Oil Painting and Impressionism of the Japanese EraDuring the Japanese occupation (1895-1945), few cultural influences from mainland China affected Taiwan. Painters such as Chen Cheng-po 陳澄波, Li Shih-chiao 李石樵, Li Mei-shu 李梅樹, and Yang San-lang 楊三郎 studied Western oil painting in Japan, mainly at the Tokyo Fine Arts Institute, where they learned fixed perspective and a naturalistic rendering of light and shade. Strongly influenced by French Impressionism (filtered through Japan), these artists were eager to capture and depict the flavor and hues of the Taiwan landscape. Their subject matter often centered on common, daily scenes of the island's villages, farms, and rural areas. These oil painters had an important influence on Taiwan's artistic developments, as many of them became influential teachers and leading figures in art circles. They also dominated the two most important annual exhibitions at the time, the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition 臺灣美術展覽會, first held in 1927, and the Taiyang Arts Show 臺陽美展, which began in 1934. Through their influence at these exhibitions, the Taiwan impressionists ensured the importance of Western-style painting in the future development of Taiwan art. The works of this group became known as nativist art 鄉土藝術, which also had a parallel development in literature. Characterized by a conscious desire to depict images that evoked Taiwan's unique identity, the nativist art had a long-lasting influence. It would surface again in the 1970s, in both art and literature, and subsequently in music and film. 1950s: Traditional Chinese PaintingWhile many of the nativist impressionists were reaching their prime, an influx of traditional Chinese ink painters arrived with the ROC government from the mainland. With the government eager to reintroduce Chinese culture to Taiwan, landscape artists such as Huang Chun-pi 黃君璧 and Fu Chuan-fu 傅狷夫 enjoyed official backing, and by the early 1950s, their genre of painting had replaced Western styles at official art exhibitions, competitions and in school curricula. The most important figure to emerge from the mainland emigre artists was Chang Dai-chien 張大千, who went far beyond the conventional precepts of Chinese painting. Before arriving in Taiwan, he had already made a significant contribution to the Chinese art world with his more than 200 detailed copies of the ancient Buddhist murals in China's Dunhuang Caves 敦煌石窟, which he painted in the early 1940s. Chang's mature paintings, which earned international recognition, were marked by his unique splash-ink technique. Using broad strokes and deliberate blotches of color--particularly deep greens and blues--he created powerful landscapes that were often monumental in size. 1960s: Abstract ArtBy the late 1950s and early 1960s, many younger artists were beginning to feel disillusioned with traditional Chinese painting, but were unable to identify with the Japanese-trained impressionists. Social changes of the post-war era were begging for a new vehicle of expression. These younger artists, most of them also of mainland origin, were drawn to contemporary Western trends, especially abstract art. The rising young modernists were very outspoken in their criticism of the older traditionalists. They banded together in private art groups, the most prominent of which were the Eastern Art Group 東方畫會 and the Fifth Moon Group 五月畫會, both formed in the mid-1950s. The most influential of the Taiwan abstract art pioneers was Li Chung-sheng 李仲生. Once established, some of the more prominent artists of this generation sought to find a synthesis between modern abstraction and traditional painting. Liu Kuo-sung 劉國松 and Chuang Che 莊哲, for example, sought to create a new, modern form of Chinese landscape art. By the late 1960s, artists were working in a much greater variety of modernist styles as more Western movements filtered into Taiwan. American trends, such as pop art, minimalism, and optical art, all had their local followers. European trends, such as surrealism and especially dada art, also found avid supporters. Many modernist painters of the 1960s emigrated to the United States and Europe in order to fully develop their Western-oriented art skills. 1970s: New Nativist ArtArtists in the late 1960s and 1970s began rejecting the idolization of Western-style art in search of something that was more in touch with their own environment and culture. What emerged was a new nativist movement in Taiwan art. The new movement found its expression most among those who had been trained in Western-style oil painting and those with backgrounds in Chinese ink painting. A number of artists who had left Taiwan to find inspiration in America or Europe returned at this time. Among this group was Hsi Te-chin 席德進, who gave up his earlier devotion to abstraction and in 1966 began sketching and painting local scenery and architecture, exploring the island's folk art traditions. His change in direction had significant influence on younger artists of the time. Another influential artist of this time was Wu Hao 吳昊, whose folk-like woodblock prints were often colorful and nostalgic renditions of the Taiwan countryside. At the same time, Cheng Shan-hsi 鄭善禧 was providing a new direction to traditional ink painting. He focused on local landscape scenes rather than idealized memories of mainland scenery, rejecting the refined brushstrokes of old in exchange for a more colorful and down-to-earth vitality. In the calligraphic inscriptions on his works, he replaced classical poetic lines with vernacular descriptions. Important inspiration was also found in the work of "native" artists like Ju Ming 朱銘 (see section on Sculpture) and Hung Tung 洪通. The latter had no training as a painter, but possessed a rich imagination nurtured on Taiwanese folk traditions. His intriguing, childlike paintings, full of colorful patterns and simplistic figures and animals, became the talk of the art world, especially after the influential Hsiung Shih Art Monthly 雄獅美術 published a special issue on Hung Tung in 1973.
Contemporary TrendsDuring the 1980s and 1990s, artists displayed a much greater variety of styles and subject matter than previously. The Taiwan consciousness was an important starting point for the influential 101 Art Group 一○一現代藝術群 founded in 1982. These artists often expressed their sense of local identity with symbolic or metaphorical images. Wu Tien-chang 吳天章 and Yang Mao-lin 楊茂林, for example, filled their canvases with primitive-looking images that often suggested social events. Often working in monumental scale with a harsh black and white palette, Wu has produced works commemorating the February 28 Incident 二二八事件 and commented on other events and figures from Taiwan's past. By comparison, Yang's Made in Taiwan 臺灣製造 series presents a quieter juxtaposition of subjects native to the island, such as sweet potatoes, sea shells, images of Taiwan's aboriginal peoples, and references to the 17th century Dutch occupation of Taiwan. His approach presents a more subtle vision of Taiwan history and society. Chinese ink painting has continued its solid standing in Taiwan. Many artists, such as Chiang Chao-shen 江兆申, the late deputy director of the National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院, remain fairly well-grounded in the traditional style, although many incorporate subtle innovations. Yu Cheng-yao 余承堯, who only began painting after retiring from a long military career, ignores the traditional brushstroke lexicon and instead works over his mountains and trees with closely knit, interwoven strokes that create a richly textured surface. Other painters have departed from tradition not only in their brushstrokes but in their subject matter. Lo Ching 羅青, for example, in his Palm Tree Boulevard 棕櫚大道, replaces the standard pine or willow trees with palm trees and mountains or waterfalls with an asphalt road. In his inscriptions, he replaces traditional metaphors with modern-day references. Lo and other ink painters have also embraced the exploration of a Taiwan consciousness, drawing much of their inspiration from local reality rather than from distant memories of mainland China.
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