The Colorists of Taiwan

Abstract

Taiwan's painters were leading contributors to a revolution in color that dramatically reshaped East Asian art. Their world-class achievements have been underappreciated. During the early twentieth century, new techniques of on-site sketching and the introduction of oil paint shook the foundations of Chinese and Japanese ink painting as it had been practiced for centuries. The Japanese colonization of Taiwan, a period when educators such as Ishikawa Kinichiro 石川欽一郎(1871-1945) systematically introduced European painting methods, produced a cohort of painters professionally trained, cosmopolitan in outlook, and committed to watercolor and oil painting. These included Chen Cheng-po 陳澄波(1895-1947), Lee Tze-fan 李澤藩(1907-1989), Li Mei-shu 李梅樹(1902-1983), Chen Hui-kun 陳慧坤(1907-2011), Yen Shui-lung 顏水龍(1903-1997) and Liao Chi-chun 廖繼春(1902-1976). Building on international art trends like Impressionism and Fauvism, they developed a distinctive palette reflective of the island. Influences from ink painting, local geography, temple architecture, porcelain, and aborigine customs informed their approaches. Painters who moved from China to Taiwan after 1949, like Chang Dai-chien 張大千(1899-1983) and Liang Dan-fong 梁丹丰(1935-), remained committed to ink painting but expanded its boundaries. Appreciative of the sanctuary Taiwan offered them, they saw themselves as ambassadors of a resilient art form centered on brushwork practice. Their travel abroad did not persuade them to borrow from Western models. It confirmed their determination to preserve Chinese painting's distinctiveness. Though most Chinese painters of recent centuries used color sparingly and regarded it as secondary to ink, these two saw ample precedent in China's tradition for a more serious engagement with color. Liang Dan-fong employed color poetically in her travel-sketching. Chang Dai-chien, an unmatched master colorist, created his final masterpiece in Taiwan, entitled Panorama of Mount Lu 廬山圖.