Draft:The Chun-Meng Painting Society

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The Chun-Meng Painting Society was an Eastern-style painting group founded in 1928 by Lin Yu-Shan, Chu Fu-Ting, and Lin Tong-Ling in Chiayi, with its activities held primarily in Chiayi, Tainan, and Kaohsiung. Lin Yu-Shan explained the motive behind the Chun-Meng Painting Society: “We gradually understand that participating in the Taiten once a year is not enough. We should paint more often, which is why we founded the painting society.”

    The Chun-Meng Painting Society staged its first exhibition at the Tainan Public Hall in April 1930. In addition to the members from Chiayi, painters Pan Chun-Yuan, Huang Ching-Shan, Chen Tsai-Tien, and Wu Zuo-Quan from Tainan joined the exhibition with concerted efforts. The society’s second exhibition was held at the Chiayi Public Hall in December 1930, and its third exhibition was held at the Luoshan Credit Cooperative in 1932. Afterwards, the society’s exhibition was no longer held in Tainan, which led to the withdrawal of Pan Chun-Yuan, Huang Ching-Shan, and Chen Tsai-Tien.

    The Chun-Meng Painting Society was renamed the Chun-Meng Painting Institute in the postwar era. The institute was active in Taipei with its major members including Lin Yu-Shan, Huang Ou-Po, Lu Yun-Sheng, and Li Chiou-He moving north to seek employment. The institute staged a total of seven exhibitions and did not cease operation until 1954. Although the institute no longer organized any joint exhibitions thenceforth, it still wielded continuing influence over the Taiwanese art scene through some of its members.

History

Prewar Development

Tainan Public Hall

The venue for the first gathering of the Chun-Meng Painting Society: Tainan Public Hall

    The Chun-Meng Painting Society was the first Eastern-style painting group founded by Taiwanese in the Japanese colonial period. Before the Second World War (WWII), the painting society members aimed to participate in the Taiten and ergo strived to learn Eastern-style painting on the basis of traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting so as to meet the exhibition’s aesthetic criteria and portray the “local color”of Taiwan, which evolved into a sketch-oriented painting perspective and Taiwanese nativism.

    The Chun-Meng Painting Society staged at least seven exhibitions before WWII, though it suspended its activities between 1941 and 1945 due to the outbreak of war. On April 20, 1930, the painting society held its first “exhibition of trial works” at the Tainan Public Hall, featuring the works by nine painters, including Pu Tien-Sheng, Lin Tong-Ling, Chu Fu-Ting, Lin Yu-Shan, Pan Chun-Yuan, Chen Tsai-Tien, Shih Yu-Shan, Huang Ching-Shan, and Wu Zuo-Quan. The other six exhibitions of the painting society were all held in Chiayi. In 1932, the painting society remained in operation despite some members’ withdrawal for reasons of financial difficulties. Its sixth exhibition in 1935 was particularly a special celebration of its sixth anniversary. Entering the postwar era, the Chun-Meng Painting Society was reorganized and renamed the Chun-Meng Painting Institute, so as to help its members apply for teaching posts. The number of its members grew in this period. New members included Li Chiou-He, Lu Yun-Sheng, Chang Lee Te-He, Huang Shui-Wen, and Wu Tian-Min. They all together contributed to the flourishing development of the Chun-Meng Painting Institute. There are two versions about the timing of the reorganization. The first version is that the Chun-Meng Painting Society was reorganized as the Chun-Meng Painting Institute between 1940 and 1942 according to Lin Yu-Shan’s “Manuscript of the General Development of the Chun-Meng Painting Institute” (1948). The second version is that the Chun-Meng Painting Society was reorganized as an academy-like “painting institute” in 1947 at the suggestion of Huang Ou-Po who joined the painting society in 1946. In his manuscript, Lin Yu-Shan wrote that the reorganization took place between 1940 and 1942 because an academy usually required three to four years of studies. Only by doing so can the members apply for teaching posts in 1947 with the certificates issued by the painting institute.

    The Chun-Meng Painting Society was the hub of Chiayi’s art scene, which represented its most significant influence on the art development in prewar Taiwan. Given the fact that Pan Chun-Yuan, Huang Ching-Shan, and Wu Zuo-Quan from Tainan still participated in its sixth-anniversary exhibition, there was no “split” in the painting society at all. Besides, the preserved collaborative paintings by its members not only indicated the intra-society communication, but also reflected the root-taking endeavor undertaken by generations. Moreover, the painting society served as an exchange platform for Eastern-style painting in the southern region of prewar Taiwan. The members were all from Chiayi and Tainan who sought to enhance their creative ability collectively through the painting society, and their works were either entries or exhibits in the Eastern-style painting category of the Taiten. The painting society’s great concern and social responsibility for the art environment of Taiwan found expression in the manifesto jointly signed by all its members and included in the catalogue of its sixth-anniversary exhibition in 1935: “The painting society will maintain its consistent sincerity, devote itself to the popularization of art thoughts, and actively promote the healthy, robust development of art in Taiwan.”

Postwar Development

    On the occasion of its first postwar exhibition in 1948, the Chun-Meng Painting Institute modified its founding purpose as “giving full play to the spirit of traditional Chinese painting and bringing forth the new from the old.” Its goals included adapting to the postwar culture, pursuing artistic innovation, displaying Chinese painting spirit, and incorporating traditional culture. Its members endeavored to learn painting techniques and explore artistic creation. They showcased their artistic spirit and insights, making themselves the mainstay of both the Eastern-style painting circle and the postwar Chinese painting scene. A total of 53 works were on view at that exhibition. Inspired by realities, these works portrayed natural landscapes and embodied the zeitgeist with rhythmic vitality.

    The year of 1949 saw a marked increase in the number of painters from China to Taiwan. They were quite different from Taiwanese painters in style. The competition between both parties at the Taiwan Provincial Fine Arts Exhibition resulted in a paragon on orthodox Chinese painting. In 1950, the outcry over the reform of Chinese painting led to the introduction of Western-style painting which sets great store by observation and sketching. When teaching at the National Taiwan Normal University, Lin Yu-Shan collaborated with painters from China, learned from the latter’s experience of Chinese calligraphy and painting, and integrated it with his own experience of sketching. After a long period of exploration and attempt, Lin managed to make a perfect fusion of artisan skills, ink-wash painting, and Eastern-style painting. Later, the Chiayi-based Chun-Meng Painting Institute moved to northern Taiwan and remained active. It often collaborated with members who lived in that region (e.g., Lu Yun-Sheng, Li Chiou-He, and Huang Ou-Po) in organizing workshops to keep improving themselves. In 1954, Lin Yu-Shan and Lu Yun-Sheng from the Chun-Meng Painting Institute proposed the idea of “inimitable Taiwanese painting” which incorporated the merits of Chinese,Japanese, and Western art in combination with the tropical light and rich colors of Taiwan, intending to fulfill the values of the institute and the subjectivity of Taiwan.

Iconic Members

The Chun-Meng Painting Society was initiated by Lin Yu-Shan and Chu Fu-Ting. Both of them were Chiayi natives, and they ergo recruited many Eastern-style painters in Chiayi and Tainan, such as Pan Chun-Yuan, Wu Zuo-Quan, Lin Tong-Ling, Huang Ching-Shan, Shih Yu-Shan, Hsu Ching-Lien, Pu Tien-Sheng, and Chen Tsai-Tien.

    Lin Yu-Shan (1907-2004) was the leader and key figure of the painting society in Chiayi. His works had been selected for the Taiten and Futen respectively ten times and five times in a row. Lin Yu-Shan, Kuo Hsueh-Hu, and Chen Chin have been known as the “Taiten’s up-and-coming talent trio.” Apart from the Chun-Meng Painting Society, Lin also participated or took a leading role in the Ya-She Calligraphy and Painting Society, the Zili Society, the Mo-Yang Painting Group, the Chinaberry Art Society, and the Li Guang Society. Chu Fu-Ting (1904-1977) was also a painter from Chiayi whose works had been selected for the 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th Taiten and the 3rd Futen. Influenced by Lin Yu-Shan, Chu’s paintings feature sketch-like ink-wash landscapes. As a close friend of Lin Yu-Shan, Lin Tong-Ling often consulted him about Eastern gouache painting and sketched outdoors with him. With Eastern gouache paintings and traditional folk paintings on Daoism and Buddhism as the staple, Lin Tong-Ling’s works had been selected for the Taiten 11 times in a row. Following Huang Tu-Shui, Pu Tien-Sheng (1912-1996) was the second Taiwanese artist who studied sculpture in Japan. Inspired by Chen Chen-Po in terms of art, Pu sat at the feet of Japanese sculptor Asakura Fumio and underwent basic training in sculpture. Pu had been on the jury for the National Art Exhibition R.O.C. and the Taiwan Provincial Fine Arts Exhibition several times.

    Pan Chun-Yuan (1891-1972) and Huang Ching-Shan (1907-2005) were key members from Tainan. Pan’s works had been selected for the Taiten six times in a row since its second year. He excelled in Eastern gouache painting, ink-wash painting, and traditional temple painting, in which his nativist concerns found expression. Huang was known for portraits. He had devoted nearly 70 years of his life to portraits, and his ink-wash paintings and Eastern gouache paintings are as much remarkable. His works had been selected for the Taiten six times and for the Futen once.

    Apart from Taiwanese members, a few Japanese artists also joined the Chun-Meng Painting Society. Tsunehisa Tsuneharu was one of them. His works had been selected for the Taiten and the Futen seven times. Living in mountainous Chiayi, he determined to record the mountain scenery of Taiwan within five years. In 1934, his work Tashan was selected for the 8th Taiten, which provoked the controversy about “a pair of two-panel folding screens.”

Influence

In the Japanese colonial period, no Eastern-style painting groups in Chiayi lasted longer and had greater achievements than the Chun-Meng Painting Society. By virtue of regular meetings and exhibitions, it enabled its members to improve their painting skills and increased the chances for their works to be selected for official art exhibitions. The Chun-Meng Painting Society not only facilitated artistic creation but also sustained friendships among artists, making itself a force to be reckoned with in terms of incubating and promoting artistic trends in Chiayi.

    The Chun-Meng Painting Society had held seven joint exhibitions. Six of them were in Chiayi, whilst the first one was held in Tainan in 1930. Its members’ success at official art exhibitions (e.g., Taiten and Futen) also earned Chiayi a high reputation as the “City of Painting.” Its influence spread to northern Taiwan in the 1950s because Lin Yu-Shan moved to Taipei. In 1954, it forged a cross-administrative-area art alliance known as the Southern Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition (abbreviated to the Southern Exhibition). The activities and influence of the Chun-Meng Painting Institute thus extended to Tainan and Kaohsiung where arts education was promoted and numerous artists were incubated as a result. Over the course from the prewar period to the postwar era, and given its members’ achievements at official art exhibitions, the Chun-Meng Painting Society evolved from a local painting organization in southern Taiwan into an iconic painting institute tantamount to a microcosm of modern art history in Taiwan.

    The Chun-Meng Painting Society was also the creative fire, the inspiration that induced other art groups. Rather than young students without basic knowledge about painting, only the painters whose works had been selected for art exhibitions and the folk artists in the Chiayi-Tainan region were allowed to apply for its membership. This prompted local personalities who cared about arts and literature to advocate a youth calligraphy and painting society, hence the establishment of the Chiayi Zili Society in May 1931, an art society aiming to have young art aficionados’ works selected for the Taiten. In September 1931, Shih Yu-Shan, a member of the Chun-Meng Painting Society, also founded the Chiayi Calligraphy and Painting Research Society to encourage the younger generation in painting and calligraphic art.