Ink painters tweak their craft

In fine arts, discussion of East meets West often arises when the subject turns to contemporary Chinese ink brush painting. One of the foremost authorities on this subject, Liu Kuo-sung (劉國松), is participating in a group exhibition currently on view at the Hong-gah Museum.

Titled Treasured Objects of the Literati , it also features the work of Yuan Chin-taa (袁金塔) and Hung Ken-shan (洪根深).

The challenge for today's ink brush artist is to master the traditional technique while keeping the content relevant to today's world. Otherwise, it looks like merely imitating past achievements without offering anything new.

A brief historical note to set this exhibition into context: After the Yuan dynasty (1279 AD to 1368 AD), the literati took on ink painting as a hobby, so that paintings were more written (calligraphic) than painted.

For Taiwanese painters of the 20th century, who felt caught between western modernism with its emphasis on freedom of expression, and the history of Chinese calligraphic painting, there seemed to be a difficulty in choosing which direction to follow.

The Hong-gah exhibition features the above three Taiwanese ink brush painters' most recent works and a ceramics installation by Liu.

Born in China in 1932, Liu led the "Modern Chinese Painting Movement" in the 1950s and he is known for his innovative techniques such as non-brush-and-ink painting.

Yuan Chin-taa (袁金塔) was born in Changhua, Taiwan, in 1949. Besides showing locally, he has exhibited abroad. Here he exhibits his well-known ink painting Change Seat that shows various rows of multi-colored chairs. However, this seemingly innocent painting is charged with political meaning as the different chair colors stand in for the diverse political parties in Taiwan.

Like Yuan, many Taiwanese artists make strong political statements in a subtle way. At first glance, the painting looks simply like a painting of many chairs arranged in rows. However, these innocuous objects are imbued with political meaning.

Hung Ken-shan (洪根深) was born in Penghu in 1946. His works are combinations of landscapes, abstract mark making, and broad gestural sweeps that seem to epitomize the merging of East and West. In addition to the masters' works, five of Yuan's students exhibit their ink paintings, thus, showing that the tradition of ink painting is thriving. Another gallery is showing the work of students. At the Nanhai Gallery, art students from Shih Hsin University show off their attempts at fashion design for this group show titled The Dress Magician.

The Nanhai Gallery is part of what was the Taipei Teacher's College and which recently changed to the National Taipei University of Education. It's a great little place that captures the energy of a university coffee house where a wide range of cultural activities take place.

The second floor has a small cafe offering soft drinks and beer. Sometimes on weekend nights, musicians gather to play live music, while on weekend afternoons there may be in-depth panel discussions led by arts professors with their young art students.

Ivy Huey (惠敏) is one of the organizers and there is a large composite photo where she models each of the different outfits that are in the show. However, rather than being everyday wearable fashion, the students use fabric to wrap the mannequins as sculptural packages, which produces a young energy that makes this space well worth checking out.