Acclaimed for his Chinese ink paintings, which feature nude human forms set against scenes of sweeping landscapes, Yu Peng (于彭) is one of Taiwan’s most revered contemporary artists.
His latest exhibit, Yu Peng Painting and Calligraphy in Album Leaves: Solitariness in Mountain (于彭/冊頁書畫:獨坐孤山), runs until Aug. 8 at Taipei’s Chi-Wen Gallery (其玟畫廊).
It features seven new series of notebook-page-size ink paintings, a form known as “album leaves” (冊頁書). Album leaves are separate pages that can be assembled as a book with or without binding.
“I have painted in this format throughout my career, but this is the first exhibition to focus on my album leaves work,” Yu said at the show’s opening on July 3.
The exhibit is small in scope, but it features a medium rarely explored by other artists. It also showcases works created by an influential artist during some of his most relaxed moments on a portable canvas.
“I did these paintings everywhere, when I was at home and when I was out,” Yu said. “They were created at the spur of the moment, when I happened to be in a creative mood.”
The album leaves form of ink painting originated during the Tang Dynasty, when the “scroll book” form (捲軸書), a single long page that could be unfurled for viewing or rolled up for storage, was deemed too cumbersome.
Yu started out as a street artist at the age of 22 and taught himself woodblock painting, ceramics, watercolor and shadow puppetry.
When he was 26 he visited Greece.
“I went to Athens to see all the sculptures,” he said. “I didn’t see myself in those sculptures and decided to turn to China.”
He first visited China the same year, and this and subsequent visits influenced his painting style.
What: Yu Peng/Painting and Calligraphy in Album Leaves: Solitariness in Mountain (于彭/冊頁書畫:獨坐孤山)
Where: Chi-Wen Gallery (其玟畫廊), 3F, 19, Ln 252, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段252巷19號3樓). Open Tuesdays through Sundays from 11am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 8771-3372
When: Until Aug. 8
On the Net: www.chiwengallery.com
From 1997 to 2000, Yu worked in Shanghai, a period that resulted in his acclaimed Landscape of Desire (慾望山水) series. Yu calls it “an introspective series that reflects our desires. In contrast to the objective nudes in Western art, my nudes are a subjective contemplation of the inner world.”
In Yu’s art, what first looks like voyeurism becomes a Zen-like contemplation of basic human desires, a sensibility Yu says was influenced by his decades-long practice of meditation.
Whereas the nude in oil painting tends to celebrate the human body at its peak, Yu’s figures often include children and the elderly.
“I do nude paintings because I am, after all, a modern artist. Nudes are in the tradition of en plein air (in the open air, 寫生) paintings,” he said. “Being naked is a natural part of life. I want to depict humans in their most natural state.”
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