A look back on Taiwan's Western tradition

Despite the flood of multimedia and experimental art that dominates the art scene these days, Taiwan's western art originated from the tradition of realistic landscape and figurative oil paintings. The Hsinchu exhibition offers visitors a chance to take a look at the development of this tradition of oil painting since1928.

The exhibition features 33 oil paintings from 13 artists who are considered as the first generation of 20th century Taiwanese painters. These pioneering painters were all born around 1905 and were educated in Japan. They experienced some turbulant periods of Taiwan's history, such as Japanese colonial rule and WWII. But visitors will not see images of suffering in these paintings, as they did in the recent exhibition of East Asian oil paintings at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. On the contrary, the landscapes reveal quiet scenes of Taiwan in the old days. Half of the exhibited paintings are by Ho The-lai (何德來), a local of Hsinchu who was the first Taiwanese to enter the Tokyo Geijutsi Daigaku (Tokyo Arts University) in 1922. Commuting between Hsinchu and Tokyo, Ho developed a variety of styles, both of painting and of life. The paintings on show reveal the styles that emerged at different stages of his life.

Sea Scene (海景), for example, employs bright, contrasting colors, and is characteristic of his style in the early 1930s. On the other hand, Night Scene (御茶之水的夜景), a work from 1971, is far more philosophical, taking a perspective far above his subject and drawing out the perspective beyond the horizon.

Born in 1904, Ho grew up in a wealthy family and was sent to Japan when he was only nine. He revealed his artistic talent at primary school and living in a foreign land, he used this as his way of communicating with the outside world.

He came back to Taiwan for high school, where he started painting in oils. His interest in art grew, and eventually he decided to seek admission to Tokyo Geijutsi Daigaku. While studying there, he married a Japanese woman. Ten years later in 1932, Ho returned to Taiwan and promoted modern art in Taiwan, particularly Hsinchu. He organized art exhibitions and formed study groups. He is considered to be one of the driving forces behind modern art in Taiwan during the 1930s.

As an artist, Ho is made distinctive by his principles. He is against commercialization of art and he has always refused to participate in government-sponsored exhibitions. He has never sold any of his work because he believes these to be a concentration of his feelings and thoughts.

Other well-known painters featured in the exhibition include: Li Shih-chiao (李石樵), Liao Chi-chuen (廖繼春), Li Mei-shu (李梅樹), Liao Te-cheng (廖德政) and Chen Cheng-bo (陳澄波).