From Innovation to Avant-Garde
──1950-1970 Taiwanese Art Development
Hsiao Chiung-jui
Professor in Graduate Institute of History and Language in National Cheng
Kung University
1. Introduction
1950 to 1970 is a distinctive period in post-war Taiwanese art history due to the
fact that it was a golden age in art creation generated by the political tensions. With
innovative and avant-garde spirits, artists dodged interference from the government
who promoted democracy in a coercive fashion. These artists created a legion of
prominent artworks and were placed on the map of Taiwanese art history.
A lot of Chinese artists moved to Taiwan with the KMT regime in 1950. They
were basically conservative Chinese painters and radical modern painters. Working
with KMT to promote freedom and to protest against communism was the only access
for them to fulfill their aspirations.
Ho Tieh-hua, who moved to Taiwan betimes in 1947, first worked for the
southern military. In 1949, he produced plenty of writings about art for Taiwan
Tribune and Taiwan Shing-Shen News and instructed how to appreciate modern art. In
1950, he founded China Artists Association, and in the end of the year he relocated
20th Century Bureau, founded in Hong Kong in 1938, to Taipei, published Art
Nouveau, and promoted Free China New Art Movement. With government’s support,
he held Anti-communism & Anti-Russia Art Exhibit and Free China Art Exhibit
several times. In 1959, he founded Art Nouveau Grad School and taught young pupils
while continually publishing various prints in which the notions became the
mainstream in Taiwanese modern art. Co-authors included painters from mainland
China and a few from Taiwan such as Lee Chun-Shan, Huang Jung-ts’an, Liu Shi,
Lang Ching-Shan, Chuang Shih-ho, Chen Hui-Kun, Shih Tsui-feng.
Due to the particular political situation, the writings in the Art Nouveau
throughout were apt to strongly advocate freedom and anti-communism. Impassioned
fighting will and crisis consciousness of struggling for survival could also be seen
between the lines. As for the art, a plethora of western modernisms were introduced
such as schools posterior to Cubism and Fauvism. Modern art is relatively educational
and guiding to the youngsters comparing with the styles in Province Art Exhibit and
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Taiyang Art Exhibit. The members of this organization were questing for “newness”
and “modernity”. Take the articles when Art Nouveau first appeared as an example,
New Art and Portray of the Nude written by Liu Shi, How To Appreciate Modern Art
translated by Liu Hou, Knowing Modern Art by Ho Tieh-hua, and an introduction to
Matisse by Liang Shi-hong all shared the same features. In the early 20th century,
there were various new western modern art streams including the abstract works of
Kandinsky which had a degree of contact and introduction to modern art. Moreover,
Prospect of Chinese Painting by Lee Chun-Shan, and Nature of Folk Art by Shih
Tsui-feng showed that these members had certain concerns for the possible
development of traditional and folk art at that time.
Huang Jung-ts’an, one of the woodcut painters from China, founded Art
Graduate Program in Hankou Street in Taipei City in 1950, the same year Ho
Tieh-hua first published Art Nouveau . As a matter of fact, the relationship between
avant-garde artists and martial art system during the primary period of post-war
Taiwan was fairly complicated.
In the mid 1950 when Martial Law came into effect, Taiwan holistically entered
the period of “Anti-communism and Anti-Russia” as some art movements launched in
the meantime. First of all, Chang Dao-fan, founder and chairman of Chinese Art and
Literature Association, was in charge of propelling “fighting literature and art” policy
with the organization. Besides, Hu Ke-wei, the right hand of Chian-kai Shek,
principal of National Defense University, and president of China Art and Literature
Association Art Committee, started Art and Literature Clean-up Movement,
optimizing rigorous control of thoughts. The following year (1951) the committee
expanded and was reorganized as China Arts Association.
Art Graduate Program, Hu Ke-wei gave authorization to Liu Shi, originally an
organization under national defense system. Later on, Liu Shi acquainted Huang
Jung-ts’an when he was editing the art page in Taiwan Shing-Shen News and
nominated him to be the manager responsible for the affairs of Art Committee. Huang
was formerly a professor with professional image at the Department of Fine Arts at
National Taiwan Normal University, so he was hired to be the Director of Studies for
Art Graduate Program , responsible for drawing up teaching plans and promotion.
Huang then invited colleagues in NTNU who were artists with modern perspectives
such as Chu Teh-Chun, Lin Sheng-Yang, and Chao Chung-Hsiang to give instructions.
As an international student in Japan like Huang, Lee Chun-Shan also taught in support
of Oriental Society; the foremost students Xia Yang and Wu Hao both were under his
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instruction. However, the graduate school did not last long. It stopped running after
three months. With that, Lee Chun-Shan opened his own studio in Antung Street so
Oriental Society could develop afterwards.
In 1951, mostly the teachers in Art Graduate Program held a Modern Painting
Co-Exhibition in Taipei City Hall. This is the first exhibition Taiwan formally labeled
“modern painting” in which the displays were mainly the styles of
post-impressionism.
In 1952, Ho Tieh-hua founded New Art Graduate Program in Jianguo North
Road in Taipei City and a school. This was the first teaching institute that advertised
modern art theory and practice. It had extensively influenced young students until Ho
immigrated to the United States.
2. The Development of New Art Movement
The development of new art movement was in fact not a smooth one. Huang was
arrested for the espionage in 1951 and was executed the next year. The event
influenced avant-garde artists who were promoting modern art at that time.
Nevertheless, these preceptorial painters from mainland China left Taiwan for
some reasons. In 1955, Chao Chung-Hsiang left for Spain because he got the
scholarship to study, while Chu Teh-Chun went to France. As a result, they stopped
participating in Taiwanese art. In 1957, when May and Oriental were founded, was
the end of New Art Movement as the case stands. The school supporting Ho Tieh-hua
was in the downside in account of political tensions. His art fairs started to be
oppressed. Chuang Shih-ho was admonished and forced to move back to Ping-Tung,
where he later founded Post Graduate of Form and Art to continue promoting new art.
Ho Tieh-hua, on the other hand, shortly left for America in 1959 for good. In the same
year, Lin Shen-yang attended St. Paul Exhibition in Brazil as a judge and never
returned. The New Art Movement launched by the avant-garde western painters from
China came to an end as a result.
Looking at further development of these avant-garde western painters, it was true
that they were all very high self-conscious artists seeking a way to succeed between
China and the West. Chu Teh-Chun was praised and got a ground in European art field
for his lyric abstract oil painting. Chao Chun-Hsiang, Lin Sheng-yang, Ho Tieh-hua
were also struggling in adversity but never gave in their pursuit of art achievement.
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Chao Chun-Hsiang’s works showed an intriguing effect of combing glamorous
fluorescence and moderate Chinese ink painting, abounding with Chinese natural and
ethical philosophies and cultivations. His ink painting showed the wildness and
smoothness of calligraphy. As for Lin Sheng-yang, he was highly respected in Brazil
and obtained the honorary academician from Brazil College of Art. However, the
expressions in their artworks had no direct relationship with the development of
Taiwanese modern art.
On the contrary, members in the Mouve extended its spirit and founded Era Art
Association in 1954. It played an important and local role in the course of Taiwanese
modern art.
Originators of Era Art Association including Chang Wan-Chuan, Chen Te-Wan,
Hong Rei-Lin (originally members of Form and Art Association), Chang I-Hsiung,
Liao Te-Cheng, and Jin Runzuo were prominent painters of the new generation after
the war. Era Art Association held an alienated and doubted attitude toward the
dominant power of Province Exhibit and Taiyang spirit of out of office. Chang
Wan-Chuan, Chen Te-Wan, and Hong Rei-Lin had two in and out record in Taiyang
Exhibit. Jin Runzuo was the new rising star and winner of the Province Exhibit. He
was also recommended to be a Taiyang member in 1949, but he withdrew from
Taiyang in 1956 when he became a western painting judge for Province Exhibit. In
1967, he resigned from the post of judge and showed an independent personality.
All the members of Era Art Association had strong personal characteristics. They
were strict about life and art, which made them exclude many unreasonable dominant
authorities and resulted in several disputes among themselves. However, these
personalities still led them to their own places.
There was actually a particular connection between Era Art Association and
avant-garde western painters. For example, Lee Chun-Shan wrote an article about
their works in the second Era Art Association Exhibit in 1955. He precisely pointed
out that their works contained scenes as the main element, which was different from
the impressionism that portrayed merely the light. Generally, even though Era Art
Association members still had the thoughts like proletariat in the Form and Art
Association during Japanese Colonial period in which concerns for society and
pursuit of justice were their focus, they started to explore psychological dimension
while expressing art as a result of alienation and attitude of secularity. Basically, there
might be some contradictory thoughts between the two, but maybe it was these
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conflicts that decreased their impacts in the course of Taiwanese modern art.
In short, character and cogitative artists were not willing to concede to authority
and were not allowed to show the ideology of criticizing the society in their works.
Therefore, whether the avant-garde western painters or Taiwanese painters all need to
do a pure, stylistic, and esthetic thinking. Their avant-garde ideology and critical spirit
could only be shown in the challenge of conservative power in the art realm, which
was unable to face the whole society and an essential suspicion. Such situation did not
improve too much even during the Modern Painting Movement in the 1960s.
In the 1950s, some senior painters started to do some explorations and
approaches in pursuing modern art such as NTNU professor Ma Bai-shui(1909-), Lin
Ke-kung(1901-1992), Chen Qing-fen (1910-1987), Lu Pu-Shih (1911-1981), and Lu
Chi-cheng (1914-1990).
Taipei was the central of the modern art development in the 1950s, but there
were also some activities lead by Kuo Po-chuan, Liu Chi-Hiang in the south. The two
separately founded Tainan Art Society in Tainan and Kaohsiung Art Society in
Kaohsiung. In 1953, the two associations congregated people in Chia-I to throw
Southern Art Exhibit. These could be considered the endeavor for modern art in
Taiwan during 1950 to 1957.
3. The Modern Painting Movement
Taiwanese modern art in the 1960s was basically led by another group of
20-year-old young adults. Most of them were exiled youth moving to Taiwan from
China. Their special growing experience plus the “abstract” trend that swept the
whole world provided them a way out in which they could escape from the political
taboos and to create without constraints.
May Society , Oriental Society, and Modern Woodcut Society were founded in
the end of 1950s and thrived as avant-garde art organizations in the 1960s when the
society was in political tensions. Most prominent artists in the 1960s were from these
organizations. Obviously, that was an art society era when artists pursued art in a
group.
Even if some people suspected or depreciated these groups, it could not be
denied that May and Oriental still played a leading role in presenting the spirit of
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“avant-garde.”
There were some similar features in these two groups, but there could be more in
dissimilarities. For example, both were in the attempt of pursing ‘modern’ avant-garde
spirit. However, May in the primary stage was seeking for a connection with the west,
while Oriental was looking for usable elements in the oriental tradition. Besides,
members of May all graduated from the highest art school—Department of Fine Arts,
NTNU, so they had an air of college noble; members of Oriental, on the other hand,
were mostly from the middle class NTUE and the primary level in military, so they
had an air of simplicity of the folk.
When May was founded, it was in pursuit of gaining international art
identification. The name May Society was an imitation of Paris’ Salon de Mai.
However, after the third class (1959) when some realist members insisted their ideals
and left, the group from then on diverted to have ‘abstract’ as a goal to be avant-garde.
Limitations such as members should be NTNU alumni were also revoked, and the
group became more open.
The most evocative artists in May Society are Liu Kuo-song(1932-) and Chuan
Che (1934-). In the 1960s, the two became the most significant spokesmen in
Taiwanese modern art movement because of their unique creations and trenchant
statements. Liu has a disposition of leadership; he was a witted person who loved
challenges and good at riposting. These qualifications made him a hero who fought
for modern art in the Modern Art Debate against professor Hsu Fu-kuang at Tunghai
University about the doubt in art and relation with politics. This also established his
status in Taiwan modern art realm.
Liu’s achievement and dedication were not on clarifying the issue of modern art
and political status, but the faith and perseverance in the ‘abstraction’ of modern art.
Experiments he did on his works and the concept he promoted by words became a
clear-cut tone in Taiwan avant-garde art during the 1960s. Especially when he was
advocating “abstraction=modernity” and “ink painting=China,” he propelled the
development of “modern ink painting.” This became the most profound influence and
the fruitful vine in the course of Taiwan’s art after the war. This will be discussed later
in the text.
Also pursuing modern painting, Chuan Che was more flexible and freer about
whether the style was abstract or not and the media ink painting. He thought that the
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spirit was way more important than the style. Therefore, as long as the artist was able
to control the nature of the spirit, so-called “essence of ink painting”, no matter the
style was ink painting silk paper or oil paint on canvas, nothing would constrain their
thoughts and creations.
All the previous May exhibits used a legion of descriptions as the assistance for
promotion, and the members, some eminent art critics, and poets such as Yu Chun-Ts,
Chang Lung-Ian, and Yu Kuang-Chung wrote these. Poet Yu was the one who
analyzed that creations of May were vibrant and concentrated and became the best
guidance and interpreter for the association’s style.
The articles Yu Kuang-chung wrote for May Society included both Discreet May
and Rider Without Saddle Song in 1962 (the 6th exhibit), The Great Eve and Starting
Out from Mysticism in 1962 (the 8th exhibit).
Yu not only elaborated the analysis and interpretation for every individual
member’s works and styles but also virtual encouragement to the orientation and
mission of their works. He considered the modern painting movement which
combined modern poems and music as the eve of “Chinese Renaissance”. He
excitedly described this “Great Eve”:
“The day before Chu-Yuan met Peng Shian, the ‘riders without saddles’ of the modern
painting showed their state of mind of mystic life in the National Taiwan Museum. We see
another great eve on this great eve— the Great Eve of Chinese modern art. In the recent seven or
eight years, the growth of modern paintings, poems, and novels have led Chinese art and
literature into a whole new age. Modern Poem Reciting Society, Modern Novel Reciting Society,
and May Society are the evidences of the greatest change in the history we are now confronted
with. However, poets pursing laurel do not realize this, painters imparting their talents don’t,
even the professors crowning actress don’t, but the history of Chinese culture in the next half
century will definitely recognize this.”
Yu’s religious passion inspired many modern artists. He said:
“……May Society’s ‘riders without saddles’ were neither Chinese painter, western painter,
nor eastern painter in nature. They accepted adequate concepts from western art and learned the
virtual essence of Chinese art. Creating in such condition, they gradually became Chinese
modern painters. Their works crossed the boundaries, but not engaged in international smuggling
along the borderline.”
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The status of Chinese modern painters Yu established for May’s members is
incomparable and impeccable. Under Yu’s analysis and integration, May had a
clear-cut in style and a unity coherent in thinking. As a result, there must had been a
significant impact for May to gain the leading status in Taiwanese modern art in the
1960s.
When May reached the summit, prominent members included Gu Fu-sheng
(1935-), Feng Chung-rei (1933-), Hu Chi-chung (1927-), and Han Shiang-ning
(1939-).
Gu Fu-sheng joined the association earlier in 1958 and went to study in France in
1961. His works lied between abstraction and concretion, replete with the sorrow
featured in expressionism. Feng Chung-rei and Hu Chi-chung were originally
members of Brotherhood Society, but after they joined May in 1961, they became the
most vigorous creators who supported abstract painting. Hu Chi-chung’s works
abounded with colors as beautiful as the entanglement of grape vines. As for Feng
Chung-rei, he insisted to maintain the delight of ink painting embroider in the
terrestrial hues. Han Shiang-ning was the alumnus of NTNU and joined the
association in the same year as Feng and Hu. He was known for his dignified classical
architectural tablet.
In terms of the self-consciousness and perseverance to “avant-garde”, Oriental
Society came to the realization earlier and more thorough than May Society.
Moreover, Oriental Society had more productive and prestigious artists than May did.
Early in the first solo exhibit in the end of 1957, Oriental Society invited
fourteen Spanish modern painters to provide their works and held a co-exhibit via
Hsiao Chin (1935-) when he was studying in Spain; they were Juan José Tharrats
(1918-), Will Faber (1901-), and Bouardo Alooy (1930-). Xia Yang(1932-) wrote a
1160 words article similar to a declaration called Our Conversation, clearly stated
Oriental Society’s positions, including emphasizing the importance of innovation,
modern art is a global art form originated from ethnicity, the value of Chinese
traditional art views in modern art, and advocating “public art” instead of “art
popularization.”
Due to Oriental Society’s audacious breakthrough in creation, the
well-known UDN columnist Ho Fan described the eight members in the first exhibit
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“eight leading horses”.
In retrospect of the members’ works in the early days, there were multifarious
attitudes and development for their own styles. Many rising avant-garde schools from
the west included Abstractionism, New-Objectivism, Neoclassicism, Cubism,
Surrealism, Mecbanism, Expressionism, Structuralism, Fauvism, Symbolism,
Various media and wide attempts of creation then became the exquisite and
impressive styles of creating for these students. In Hsiao Chin’s early years he started
out with forms and colors, later he diverted the focus on merely psychological
symbols, expressing a concept of a universal passerby. Huo Gang’s early works were
replete with the mystery of surrealism. But after he immigrated to Italy, he developed
a simple, serene, musical and mystic composition for the frame. As for Xia Yang, his
early styles were mercurial, yet after he left for France from Italy in 1964, he started
to create figures with lines like some squirmy “caterpillar men” which was considered
dead, lonesome, and dissociated.
Different from those who went abroad, Wu Hao stayed in Taiwan all along. He
used media from folk art and matched the toys with superbly colors. He successfully
created a new era and became one of the eminent delegates in the Local Movement.
Even though Chu Wei-bai(1927-) was not the one of the originators of Oriental
Society, he had started to participated in exhibits since the second one. Chu Wei-bai
was a man of silence and thought like a philosophical poet. In his early ages he used
to master folk woodcuts. As to 1961, he was greatly influenced by Spatialism master
Lucio Fontana and started to use fashions of “dig” and “paste” to create strong light
shadow effects in the canvas with simple colors. Sometimes he even attached some
things on the work such as match and cotton swab. His works lied between the
category of painting and sculpture. In the later years he was very productive and
received high appraisal.
Lee Yuan-chia, one of the originators in Oriental Society, was the earliest ideal
artist in the world. He liked to create in a long Chinese traditional India paper. He
used very simple lines and styles, or ink dot and thin lines, even some actions to
create. A later joined member, Lee Shih-chi(1938-), described, “Once Lee Yuan-chia
was showing everyone an artwork. He opened the long white India paper but nothing
was there. No one understood what he was doing. Suddenly some dots appeared. It
was a surprise as the paper was fully open as the end of the creation.”
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Creation involving actions and emphasizing concepts more than the work itself
was a new form of creating appeared in the 1960s in Taiwan, which could be
considered a fairly avant-garde behavior. Lee immigrated to England afterwards and
opened his own art museum. His life was closely knitted with art and lasted for the
rest of his life.
In fact, there was an origin for the members to approach avant-garde and
outstanding art achievement. All of them were under the instruction of an avant-garde
painter from China Lee Chun-Shan (1912-1984), also known as Taiwan Modern
Painting Mentor.
Lee Chun-Shan was born in Canton. He studied in Art College of Canton and
Graduate school of Art, Art College of Shanghai but did not graduated. He then
enrolled in the Art Department of Nihon University in Tokyo and joined in Tokyo
Graduate School of Art (also known as cram school). Prestigious avant-garde artists
like Seiji Togo, Yamamoto Keisuke, Abe Kongo, and Fujita Tsuguji were his teachers.
Afterwards, he took part in Nikaikai, Second Division Society and Black West
Society, the most modern art groups in Japan at that time. He and his classmates, Saito
Yoshishige, and Kim Whanki all became eminent modern artists in Japan and Korea
now.
After Lee returned from Japan, he successively taught in Chungking Institute of
Art, Hanzou Institute of Art, and Guanzou Institute of Art. In 1945, he worked as an
educational specialist of Government Information Office.
Lee moved to Taiwan with KMT in 1949 and taught as an art teacher in Zhong
Shan Girls High School. NDU was established in 1951 summer, and Lee was invited
by Liu Shi to teach there until he left for Changhua in 1955 summer.
While teaching in Zhong Shan Girls High School and NDU, Lee also taught
outside the school. With Huang Jung-ts’an (1918-1952), Chu Teh-Chun (1920-), Lin
Sheng-Yang(1914-1998), and Liu Shi founded Art Graduate School in Kankuo Street,
Taipei. Afterwards, he opened a private studio in Antung Street.
It was a tough age when materials were not so easily obtained, but plenty of
youths came to Taiwan from China to study art with passion. Students of Oriental
Society learned and knew each other in Lee’s studio.
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Organizing art association and promoting art movement were originally what
Lee emphasized in his studio, but when students started to carry them out, this art
mentor, had been politically oppressed, strongly discouraged them from doing so and
left Taipei shortly.
Lee’s modern art teaching had become a legend in the course of Taiwanese
modern art. He was called the “Propagandist in the coffee room.” He taught
full-heartedly and cultivated different legions of modern artists; Oriental Society was
only one of the others.
Lee’s personal creations had the quality of high “subconsciousness.” He had
described himself as a “realistic abstractionist.” His abstract paintings are replete with
abundant skin texture and random composition which represented a reflection of the
mind instead of the shaping of prospect.
When Oriental Society was established, Lee had already moved to Changhua.
Another senior artist then strongly support these new artists. He participated the
exhibit with the association. He is Shiy Der Chin (1932-1981).
Shiy Der Chin graduated from Art College of Hanzhou and emigrated to Taiwan
in 1945. He taught in Chia-Yi Junior High School at first and then moved to Taipei.
He was the first supporter, advocator, and creator of the Taiwanese modern art
movement as well as the promoter of Taiwan local movement in the 1970s.
Taiwan Avant-Garded Painting Association was founded in the end of 1950s.
After May Society and Oriental Society, Modern Woodcut Association was
established in 1958.
Woodcut had been a cultural inheritance of Chinese tradition, and the rise of
contemporary Chinese woodcut started from Lu Xun’s introduction and teaching of
Germany and Russian woodcut. Woodcut was the most significant advertising weapon
in the 8 years of war with Japan. Between 1945, a lot of left wing wood cut artists
came to Taiwan. They used their brushes and scaupers to portray the livings of the
middle class in Taiwan’s society. However, as to the 2-28 Incident in 1947, these
artists left Taiwan successively. Thereafter, Taiwan entered the curfew period, and
woodcut artists could only produce works about praising country villages and
motivating fighting will.
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Ten American modern woodcut artists, Jian Han-tung (1926-) and Chin Song
(1932-) from Taiwan participated in Modern Chinese and American Woodcut Exhibit
held by American Chinese Culture Association in Taipei in 1958. Innovative style and
technique were considered the first exhibit of Modern Woodcut Society. The second
exhibit took place the following year, gathering all innovative woodcut artists; the
exhibit then became the most important propeller of Taiwan modern woodcut. Besides
Jian and Chin, there were also members such as the younger artist Lee Shi-chi (1938-)
and elder artists Chen Ting-Shih and Yang Ying-feng (1916-2002).
Modern Woodcut Society did some new experiments with the essence of
avant-garde and made a breakthrough in the material and technique from traditional
woodcut including a type of single page woodcut. These achievements won many
international awards and initiated a trend of woodcut creation in Taiwan. Jian Han
was graduated from NENU, learning in Lee Chun-sheng and Liao Ji-Chun’s studios
successively. The themes of his works were taken from the folk and expressed in a
modern fashion. Chin Song’s creation, on the other hand, consisted of strong symbols
and colors, having a sense of primitive simplicity like Dun Huang murals. He was
quite active in the art circle and became popular as he won the honorary award in the
Brazil St. Paul International Biennale Art Exhibit. Lee Shi-chi, Chiang, and Chin were
alumni of NTNU, but Lee was younger. He was well-known as “Toned Bird in the
realm of art” for diverse creations. “Memorial Ceremony of the Moon” as a silk
engraving series, created with his poet wife, pointed out that the beautiful image in
poets’ minds was destroyed as men landed on the moon. This was one of the classic
works in Taiwanese modern woodcut. Lee’s creations completely surmounted the
limitations in woodcut, for instance, ready-made materials deco, spray paint, and paint
were all original. He was a very outstanding and significant artist who participated in
Taiwan’s avant-garde art for all time.
Chen Ting-Shih and Yang Ying-feng were elder artists in Modern Woodcut
Society, but they were more avant-garde. “Mr. Er” was a pseudonym Chen used to
create woodcut. He was one of the woodcut painters coming to Taiwan from China
after the war and the one who broke the traditional constraints and achieved
outstanding performance in woodcut creation. The modern woodcut created by using
Taiwan’s exclusive giant sugar cane board was like enormous bodies collapsed into
each other when silently rotating in the universe; the momentum was great but the
style was simple. He was one of the most significant creators after the war.
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Actually, Chen was influenced by Yang that she was inspired to use sugar cane to
create woodcut. Yang was one of the few omnibearing artists who mastered woodcut,
sculpture, landscape sculpture, painting, sketch, cartoon, art design, photography, laser,
and so forth. No matter the width, the amount, or the quality of his works were all
pioneers before the time.
Because Yang had worked in Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, he used
the residues of sugar canes to make sugar cane boards and create artwork as an
experiment and left a lot of characteristic woodcuts.
However, Yang only stayed one year in Modern Woodcut Society since he had
divert his effort to sculpture, especially in landscape sculpture. In 1961, he was
commissioned by the Ministry of Education to make a large-scale of landscape relief
in Sun Moon Lake Teachers' Hostel called “Sun Moon Brilliance”. This was the
earliest case of public art, and from then on Yang started a professional landscape
relief career.
Chen Ting-Shih once learned sculpture from Yang. She used the steel from
Kaohsiung ship raveling factory to create sculptures, which was very successful.
After Modern Woodcut Society was founded in 1958, it had held co-exhibit
many times with Oriental Society. Afterwards, Chiang, Chin, and Lee became
members of Oriental Society in succession. Chen and Yang the seniors once
participated in the exhibit of May Society.
Modern Woodcut Society diverted the direction of Taiwanese woodcut creation,
which had a significant historical meaning.
From 1957 to 1958, avant-garde associations such as May, Oriental, and Modern
Woodcut Society were established. Taiwan’s art realm entered a thriving “painting
society age” in the 1960s.
In 1960, art scholar Gu Shan-liang planned to establish China Modern Art Center.
Even though Chin Song’s work was accused of anti-Chiang and the whole mission
was ceased, there were already 17 associations and 145 prestigious painters on the
back of the plan. It is not difficult to see it was the silver age of painting associations.
Many artists became famous either in the early 1960 or later were mostly from
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the associations at that time.
Liao Shiou-Ping(1936-) was a influential artist for Taiwan woodcut creation after
the Modern Woodcut Society. He was one of the members of Today Society founded
in 1960. This was an organization established by a group of students at TMUE and
NTNU graduates. They maintained the idea of
anti-absolute-calligraphy-abstractionism. Obviously it was a notion derived from Liu
Kuo-song’s concepts. Liao mastered in oil painting in his early years and was usually
the champion, but he established his personal style in the form of woodcut creation.
He employed a set of geometric symbols to express the beauty of Taiwanese folk
belief and modern life.
Societies founded in the same year included Chang Feng Society, Ji Shiang
Society, Joint Society, and Brotherhood Society. Other societies were founded one
after another such as Black and White Society (1962), Liberty Society (1964), Mental
Image Society (1964), Era Society (1964), Hua Wai Society (1966), and Century
Society (reorganized from Mental Image Society in 1966). Societies founded in 1964
worth advertence because most of their members became influential advocators and
participants in modern art movement and achieved great accomplishments in creation.
Chian Paul(1942), Yao Ching-chang(1941-2000), and Gu Chung-guang were
members of Era Society. Chian Paul insisted a poetic, simple style. Yao once took part
in May Society exhibit; he immigrated to America and was known for surrealism and
then turned to symbolism. When Gu joined Era Society, he was a junior student of
fine arts department at NTNU. His work won a bronze award in the International
Painting Salon held by Hong Kong Modern Literature Association. In the 1960s he
created abundant skin textures and profound cultivation by using techniques such as
roasting, robbing, and scratching with strong calligraphic lines.
Members of Mental Image Society were mainly Taiwanese youths, including Lai
Chuan Chien(1926-), Chen Yin-huei (1931-), Ho Chau-chu (1931-), and Chen
Cheng-hsiung (1935-). They were basically all-time winners of the Province Art
Exhibit and Taiyang Art Exhibit. They were featured a para-cubism style to divide the
frame and combination of colors.
Taiwan Modern Painting Movement in the 1960s was divided into two sects due
to the different life experiences and cultural background of youths from China and
that of Taiwan. The former started out from mental image, combining Chinese
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traditional ink painting—“white is black” and “virtual substitutes real”, which was a
more abstract expression. The latter started out from objective image, limiting the
order and structure of real land, objects, and colors, which was a creation mode in
transformation of objects or division of frame.
The most interesting part is that these Taiwanese youths starting from objects
were in hope of showing the difference from senior painters in terms of
para-impressionism style. They emphasized their creation was for the mind, so Mind
Society became the association’s name.
Chen Cheng-hsiung, the youngest among all, gradually divorced from the
constraint of objective image and started to go toward pure abstraction. His works
were highly recognized in international exhibits, including being invited to attend
Salon de Mai in Paris and won the “Great Lorenzo Medal” in Italy Florence twice.
Liberty Society was a society founded in 1964 on the basis of exhibits. Members
included Chuan Shih-ho (1923-), Tseng Pai-yao (1927-1992), Liu Sheng-jung
(1925-1985), Huang Chau-hu (1939-), and Lee Chau-jin (1941-). This organization
was obvious a “un-Taipei” one. In the abovementioned members, except Huang
Chau-hu was from Taichung, the others were from Tainan and Kaohsiung. The
Modern Painting Movement in the 1960s was an island-wide movement in which the
wave of avant-garde swept the realm of art. Chuan Shih-ho was a senior artist who
had studied in Japan. In the 1950s he promoted New Art Movement with Ho Tieh-hua
in Taipei, but he moved to Ping-tung afterwards. Tseng Pai-yao was a successful
self-learning artist; abstract, concrete, symbols were various elements used in his
works for an exploration of life. Liu Sheng-jung was born in Tainan; his uncle Liu
Chi-hiang (1910-1998) was an eminent senior artist who had also studied in Japan.
Liu Sheng-jung was deeply influenced by his uncle that he went on the he path of art
creation. His works had distinguishing characteristics: he combined traditional golden
paper money for the dead with ancient oracle-bone-script and jade crest.
Huang Chau-hu was actually a loyal friend of May Society and Oriental Society
as well as a great writer in the 1960s during the Taiwan Modern Painting Movement.
He wrote Defense for Chinese Modern Realm of Art (1965) when the two societies
were founded. He had also worked with Hsiao Chin that they held Punto Art
Movement Exhibit in Taiwan (1963). Attending the exhibit held by Liberty Society
was the first time he appeared in the realm of art with his artworks. Later he was
active in the realm and was known for color ink painting.
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Lee Chau-jin was a young rising artist who had received formal art education. He
went back to Kaohsiung and taught in Tung Fang Institute of Technology, cultivating
numerous talents and greatly influencing Kaohsiung’s art development. In the 1960s
Lee Chau-jin attracted the realm’s attention with brazing painting. His works reflected
self-examination of humanity in terms of beauty and sorrow.
4. The Development of Modern Ink Painting
If the major achievement of Modern Painting Movement in the 1960s was
subverting the fixed ways of sketching and constraints of images with the concept of
“abstraction,” then ink painting could be the embodiment of this accomplishment.
This was a great influence in the establishment and development of Taiwanese
modern ink painting, and I have another dissertation about the whole research. I can
give a brief introduction here: extending from the “innovation of Chinese painting”
concept since the primary years after ROC was established, a concept “learning new
ways” emerged as the innovative school artists stopped promoting. However, the new
concept was neither Hsu Pei-hung (1895-1953)’s notion of “concrete equals free
hand” nor Lin Nan Kao brothers’ “adding light and shadow into Chinese painting.”
Instead, it was a direct linking of the beauty of Chinese traditional ink painting and
the “abstract” form and thinking.
Abstract stroke and rhythm plus the fun of washing the paper with ink consisted
the major creating way in “abstract ink painting” during the 1960s. Abstract ink
painting was then recognized as part of Chinese modern painting.
Liu Kuo-song was a crucial person in the revolution of ink painting
transformation.
Liu Kuo-song was the best model in such a revolutionary ink painting movement.
His strong promotion of the notion “abstract” might be quite illiberal, yet it was this
belief that made him so productive that his works were widely collected by museums
all around the world. Meanwhile, the notion also inspired traditional Chinese painting
to “liberate the image” and “update the techniques” in Taiwan. “Demolish the central
stroke” was the slogan used at the time, meaning to abandon the traditional way of
drawing rocks. In creating, diverse modern techniques and media were added for
experiment. Theoretically, not only the western notion of abstract was combined with
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Chinese traditional painting but also a new way of creating was formed by Wang Chia
in the history.
Liu Kuo-song and Yu Huan-su planned to organize Chinese Modern Ink Painting
Society in the early 1964. The purpose of this plan was to promote modern ink
painting by May Society but failed at last. Instead, an exhibit named Modern Ink
Painting Exhibit was held in October in the National Taiwan Arts Education Center
promoting the same idea. Participants included Kuo Ming-fu, Pan Tzeng-yin, Liu
Kuo-song, Chuan Che, Wang Rei-tzung, Sun Ying, Tzeng Pai-yao, Wen Ji, Hsiao
Jen-jeng, Liu Yung, and Wang Er-chang. These ten people meant that the ideal of
modern ink painting was highly identified. In their artworks, “abstract” was only a
motivation for creating, but the composition of the whole painting had become a
common feature for these artists.
While modern ink painting was promoting “liberate the image and update the
techniques,” traditional ink painters well known for Chinese painting were holding a
different contention. Even so, sometimes the two were categorized into
“contemporary Chinese painting” for promoting Chinese culture abroad.
In 1966, an ink painting exhibit called “Chinese Painting New Tradition” was on
tour exhibition until 1968.
Art historian Lee Chu-tsing was in charge of this exhibit which had not only
provided a wider international view to the members of May Society but also
contributed to their future development in the United States. A significant meaning of
this exhibit was that it was an embodiment of gathering artists in Taiwan and overseas
to explore modern ink painting. Participants included artists from America such as
Wang Ji-chian (1907-2003) and Chen Chi-kuan (1921-), members of May Society in
Taiwan, Liu Guo-song, Chuan Che, Fen Chung-rei, as well as the legend of the realm
in the 1980s—“General Painter” Yu Cheng Yao (1898-1993).
From their artworks and careers, it was not difficult to know that basically this
was a one way thinking of abandoning the concept of “traditional to innovation” from
China. They discovered a new path towards innovation through individual
experiments. To be more specifically, even though these people were cultivated with
traditional education, in their creation career, they did not use the principles they had
learned in the traditional ink painting. However, they employed a totally different
form of language to Chinese tradition to shape a new look in art that psychologically
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match Chinese tradition. Not to mention Wan Ji-chian and Chen Chi-kuan whose
styles of creation were formed abroad, Yu Cheng-yao created the most substantial and
powerful style which was isolated by the traditional ink painting style in Taiwanese
ink painting after the war.
There might be some disparities in what Taiwan’s realm of art knew about
tradition to what actually was in the 1960s, but there were also differences in the ways
of creating. Separating ink painting from traditional Chinese painting had become a
common consensus. In 1968, Chinese Ink Painting Society was established. There
were about thirty members including Liu Guo-song, Ho Hai-shuo, Hu Nian-tzu, Fen
Chung-rei, Hsu Shu-shiuo, Huang Huei-cheng, Lee Chuan, Lee Chung-chung, Lee
Wen-han, Sun Ying, Hisao Jen-cheng, Wen Ji, Wang Tung, Yang Han-tzung, Yeh
Gang, and so forth. The society was founded on November 12, which was Chinese
Culture Restoration Day, and Tseng Yu, an art historian living in Europe, was invited
to give a speech on “The Relationship Between Zen Esthetics and Modern Painting.”
The chosen time and topic of the talk partially reflected the artists’ mental tendency
and recognition of creation.
The revolution of Taiwanese modern ink painting in the 1960s, or a worldwide
wave of “abstract”, directly and indirectly influenced the great traditional ink painter
Chang Dai-Chien (1899-1983). Chang splashed ink to do a painting. He first used
printing and dying and water prints to complete an abstract draft, and then he filled in
the scenes in some parts and the work was done. As a matter of fact, even if there was
no scene, the draft could be an independent abstract work, but the artist could not
assent to the idea.
In the wave of ink painting transformation in the 1960s, we cannot deny or
neglect those artists who were in an effort to innovate from tradition. Jian Chao-shen
(1925-1996), once a student of Fu Hsin-yu, was one of them. But in terms of
avant-garde, Jian’s style was not so outstanding as the others.
5. Conclusion
It was undoubtedly to regard 1960s to be a model of revolutionary “avant-garde”
era in terms of historical development. However, if the age was considered the
Modern Painting Movement pursuing “abstraction,” a clarifying explanation would be
needed.
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The wave of “abstraction” swept the realm of art in Taiwan during the 1960s, but
artists started to suspect and self-examine its nature in the mid 1960s. A new ideal
which claimed to go back to realist, emphasize life, anti-commercialize art,
anti-absolute-painting art gradually formed a pointed “avant-garde” movement. From
Hua Wai Society in 1966, Indefinite Art Exhibition and UP Exhibition in 1967, to
Huang Guo Su Co-Exhibition in 1968 all showed an “integrated art” tendency that
was more critical and concerned about the society as well as surmounted the sheer
painting techniques. Even though the tendency and the change did not developed
under such inadequate social condition and cultural understanding, it sure attracted
people’s attention. However, the participants did not persist the ideas in creation but
achieved accomplishments in other fields. Nevertheless, the idea and techniques
recurred in the 1980s in the wake of the Local Movement in the 1970s and became the
initiator of “art deco.”
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