Draft:Chuang Shih-He

Chuang Shih-He (December 12, 1923 – November 18, 2020) was born in Tainan, Taiwan. Later, he moved to Chaozhou Township, Pingtung County with his family. He enrolled at Kawabata Painting School and Tokyo Academy of Arts and Crafts in 1938. Chuang was one of the pioneers in Taiwanese abstract painting during the Japanese colonial period. He not only strived to study and practice modern art styles in his paintings, but also systematically promoted modern art education in Taiwan through the influence of local painting societies in terms of creation, criticism, and teaching.

Life

    Born in Tainan in 1923, Chuang Shih-He moved to Pingtung with his family in 1928 and went to Japan for painting training in 1938. He enrolled in the Division of Japanese Painting at Kawabata Painting School, and then at Tokyo Academy of Arts and Crafts. During his studies in Japan, Chuang accessed avant-garde art such as Cubism, Dadaism, and Surrealism, as well as modernist ideas such as Bauhaus. In 1950, he was aware of the magazine New Art launched by Ho Tieh-Hua. In 1951, his work failed to be selected for the Taiwan Provincial Fine Arts Exhibition because it was outside the mainstream of the Taipei painting scene. In the same year, Chung began to teach at Taipei School for the Vision- and Hearing-Impaired. He thenceforth engaged actively in the emerging art platform established by Ho Tieh-Hua. Chuang not only contributed to the editorial writing of New Art, but also enthusiastically promoted the “New Art Movement in Free China” with Ho. Chuang had been on the jury for the Western-style painting category of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Free China Arts Exhibition, and his works had been selected for that exhibition several times. In 1968, Chuang Shih-He, Tseng Pei-Yao, Lee Chao-Jin, Liu Wen-San, and Sun Ying founded the Southern Modern Art Society and staged the 1st Southern Modern Art Exhibition. Chuang departed this life on November 18, 2020 at around 4:30 am.

Stylistic Evolution

    Treating Cubism as the point of departure, Chuang’s painting style was distinct from the mainstream of his coeval artists who evolved from Pleinairism into Fauvism. According to Feng Sheng-Hsuan’s analysis in his article titled “On the Development of Chuang Shih-He’s Non-Representational Painting—A Case Study of the NTMoFA Collection,” Chuang’s philosophy of creation owed its inspiration to his quotidian existence and epiphanies. He set great store by the freedom of creation, so his creative style was difficult to be identified by time. His creative practice could be divided into three phases. The first phase was in the 1940s when he was studying in Japan. He created the largest number of works in this phase, mostly Cubist and collage in style. Therefore, the use of “collage” in the context of Taiwanese art can be traced back to the early 1940s. His magnum opuses in this phase included Spring in Musashino (1941), Melancholy of Poets (1942), and Indoor Still Life B (1942). The second phase was in the 1950s when his creative style brimmed with Surrealist features and expressed his personal fantasies through assemblages of symbolic elements. His magnum opuses in this phase included God’s Field (1957) and Spring of Alishan (1957). From 1957 to 1959 was the third phase, in which Chuang’s painting style evolved into symbolic abstraction. His magnum opuses in this phase included The Chimes in Silver Moonlight (1961), Dream of the Battlefield—Combat (1962), A Poem of October (1966), and Associations of Mountains (1990).

Influence on the History of Art

Promotion of Painting Societies, Art Exhibitions, and Arts Education

    From 1957 onwards, Chuang began to teach at Chaozhou Secondary School in Pingtung. He became a driving force behind the art development in southern Taiwan by adopting a three-pronged strategy: the management and exhibitions of local art groups, the introduction and criticism of modern art and young creators in written texts, and the promotion of arts education.

    In October 1957, Chuang founded the Green House Arts Group, the first painting group in Pingtung, and presented the 1st Green House Arts Exhibition in 1958. This group has regularly staged exhibitions since its founding to date. The 63rd Green House Arts Exhibition was held in 2021. In May 1961, Chuang founded the New Formative Arts Association in Kaohsiung with Zhang Wen-Qing, Chen Chu-Shi, Ho Wen-Chi, and Li Guang-Yang. The association has annually staged the Formative Art Exhibition from its founding to date. Its 60th exhibition was held in 2021. Chuang founded the two art groups for the purpose of fostering artistic creation through inter-member interaction. He not only encouraged the members to reflect on tradition and seek innovation while embracing modern art concepts, but also pursued the objectives of arts education and communication via regular joint exhibitions. In 1964, Chuang founded the Free Art Association with Huang Chao-Hu, Tzeng Pei-Yao, Liu Sheng-Jung, and Hsu Wu-Yung, aiming to “advocate modern art and establish an earnest creative spirit through mutual emulation and discussion, thereby raising the level of the contemporary art scene in Taiwan.”

While teaching at Chaozhou Secondary School, Chuang organized several events of overseas art exchange (e.g., the Sino-Korean Goodwill Student Art Exhibition [1964-1965]) to broaden students’ horizons. He also presented his works at the Sino-Japanese Goodwill Art Exhibition (1977) and the Sino-Japanese Art Exchange Exhibition (1977). Furthermore, to facilitate art exchange, he published the article titled “Remarks on the Sino-Japanese Art Exchange Exhibition” in Lion Art. Apart from promoting painting groups and art exhibitions in Kaohsiung and Pingtung, Chuang also invested considerable effort in children’s arts education. He either published original stories with texts and illustrations or adapted inspirational stories of great persons with his hand-painted illustrations in Mandarin Daily News. Outstanding works of art by children had been on display at the Green House Arts Exhibition, and Chuang rhapsodized about them in his articles.

Introduction and Criticism in Written Texts

    Since 1958, Chuang had published numerous art criticisms in Lion Art and newspapers such as Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News, NewsTaiwan, China Daily News, and Min Sheng Daily, introducing art concepts including Surrealism, Object art, Guillaume Apollinaire’s theory of painting, and so forth. In view of the lack of public understanding about modern art, he had written articles on modern art and avant-garde concepts as well, for example, “An Introduction to Modern Painting,” “Learning to Look at Modern Painting,” “Modern Painting and Concepts,” and “On Abstract Art.” Moreover, Chuang had written criticisms of the works by renowned Taiwanese artists like Zao Wou-Ki, Ho Tieh-Hua, Lan Yin-Ding, and Ho Te-Lai. On the other hand, Chuang promoted the art development in Pingtung with written discourses, introducing to the world the creative performances of young artists of that time, such as Chen Chu-Shih, Zhang Wen-Qing (1936-1977), Lin Jian-Shu, and Li Tai-Feng.

Place in the History of Art

    Looking at Chuang’s place in the history of art from the perspective of the developmental context of his oeuvre, historians have noticed that Li Chun-Shan and the members of the Fifth Moon Group and the Eastern Painting Group in the postwar era served as the fountainhead of Modernism and abstract art in Taiwan. However, Chuang began his artistic practice with Cubism and incorporated avant-garde art following Surrealism, which rendered him an iconic Taiwanese abstract painter in the Japanese colonial period. Among his coevals, Chuang was also a pioneer in applying the concept of collage and directly integrating material objects into his paintings, foremost Indoor Still Life B and Melancholy of Poets. He used the theory of “pure painting” to make his collages. The two aforementioned works are respectively collected by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts and the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. Chiang Po-Shin’s research showed that, compared with other prewar Taiwanese artists whose styles were generally recognized as representational as Impressionism, Post-impressionism, Fauvism, or Expressionism, Chuang and his works proved that prewar Taiwanese artists were already quite avant-garde in terms of their abstract creations. Chuang’s art introduced to Taiwanese artists the concept of collage, Cubism and abstract art at least a decade earlier than the postwar Eastern Painting Group. Therefore, Chuang could be deemed a forerunner of avant-garde art in Taiwan.

Major Works

The monographs by Haung Tung-Fu and Chiang Po-Shin on Chuang mentioned several pieces of Chuang’s works that are seminal in both Chuang’s creative context and Taiwan’s art history:

Spring in Musashino

    Created in 1941 and currently collected by the NTMoFA, Spring in Musashino is made of oil paint on drawing board with the dimensions of 37.2 x 45.4 cm. Basically maintaining the original positions of the depicted objects and scenery, the composition of this work further presents multiple perspectives via the concepts of prismatic refraction or gyroscopic rotation, which restores the depicted objects to their original 3D forms. The metamorphoses of objects and the use of brushstrokes in Spring in Musashino bears the distinctive musical rhythmicity of his later works.

Melancholy of Poets

    Created in 1942 and currently collected by the KMFA, Melancholy of Poets is made of oil paint on drawing board with the dimensions of 24 x 33 cm. This work owes its inspiration to Chuang’s poet and artist roommates he got acquainted with when he was studying in Japan. Chuang created this work out of the emotional stirring by witnessing their struggles and the ups and downs in their difficult lives. This work is highly valued because Chuang did not so much faithfully portray the human figures as represented them with the technique of abstract “collage,” which made him a pioneer of abstract art in Taiwan.

Indoor Still Life B

   Created in 1942 and currently collected by the NTMoFA, Indoor Still Life B is made of oil paint and newspaper on canvas with the dimensions of 32.1 x 41.3 cm. A piece of English newspaper as readymade is collaged in the upper right of the composition, performing the functions of deconstruction and segmentation. Of all Taiwanese artists, Chuang was the first to apply material objects in paintings with the technique of collage.

Spring of Alishan

    Created in 1957 and currently collected by the KMFA, Spring of Alishan is made of oil paint on canvas with the dimensions of 116.5 x 72.5 cm. Art historian Chiang Po-Shin argued that Spring of Alishan could be regarded as Chuang’s magnum opus in his Surrealist phase. Its composition contains two vanishing points, one on the left and the other right. Interlaced by the real and the virtual, this work shows a hybridization of H- and S-composition that adds a mysterious, dreamlike charm to the landscape of Taiwan’s famous Alishan.

Gods’ Field

    Created in 1957 and currently collected by the NTMoFA, Gods’ Field is made of oil paint on canvas with the dimensions of 100.4 x 72.7 cm. This work is typically Surrealist in style. The scene depicted is supposed to be the Holy Resurrection Cathedral (St. Nicholas Cathedral) in Kanda, Tokyo. In the composition, Chuang employed an imbricated 3D structure and the dozen crosses formed by many thick, black lines to guide the viewers into a land of fantasy charged with an oppressive, religious atmosphere.

The Chimes in Silver Moonlight

    Created in 1960 and currently collected by the NTMoFA, The Chimes in Silver Moonlight is made of oil paint on drawing board with the dimensions of 60.8 x 50.2 cm. Scholar Huang Tung-Fu regards this work as one of Chuang’s magnum opuses. Based on the poem Mooring by the Maple Bridge at Night written by Zhang Ji of the Tang dynasty, this work represents the scene of the Hanshan Temple with simple, abstract lines, whilst the circle and curvy lines in the composition denote the Moon and the crows flying by.

Dream of the Battlefield—Combat

    Created in 1962 and currently collected by the NTMoFA, Dream of the Battlefield—Combat is made of oil paint on canvas with the dimensions of 72.8 x 91.3 cm. Chuang’s art series Dream of the Battlefield comprises a total of four pieces. According to Huang Tung-Fu, the military officers in Kaohsiung commissioned Chuang to create this series, expressing the military readiness for combat. It is also a significant series that marked Chuang’s stylistic turn to pure abstraction.