The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung is hosting an exhibition of works by artist Li Chun-shan (李仲生) and his students through Sunday.
Born in 1912, Li studied with Japanese-French painter Tsuguharu Foujita, a member of the Paris School, in Japan.
Foujita encouraged students by deciphering the essence and style of their works from their worst paintings. He strongly opposed works that were uncreative and mere imitations of earlier works.
Photo: Ho Tsung-han, Taipei Times
His teaching influenced Li’s own experimental teaching, which was free, open, bold and anti-academic.
In 1951, Li opened a studio on Andong Street in Taipei and took on Oyan Wen-yuen (歐陽文苑), Ho Kan (霍剛), Hsiao Chin (蕭勤), Li Yuan-chia (李元佳), Tommy Chen (陳道明), Wu Hao (吳昊), Hsia Yan (夏陽) and Hsiao Ming-hsien (蕭明賢) as students.
These eight students would in 1956 go on to create the East Painting Association (東方畫會), one of the earliest avant-garde art groups in Taiwan.
Although Li never participated in the group’s planning and exhibitions, he was seen as its spiritual leader.
Artist Chung Chun-hsiung (鍾俊雄), who quit school as a second-year student at Taichung First Senior High School to study with Li and joined the association in 1964, said Li would ask his students to turn in 100 sketches a week.
Li did not want his students to draw what they saw, but rather the subjects as seen through their hearts, with emotion, Chung said.
Half a year went by and he still did not understand Li’s instructions, so one day, he and his classmates snuck into Li’s dorm to steal a few of his sketches, Chung said.
They took about 20 sketches from the thousands underneath his bed and only later discovered that each was worth NT$120,000, he said, adding that when they returned for more, they were gone.
Li did not want his students to see his paintings, because if they did, they would imitate his work, he said.
Li forced all of his students to find themselves, and when they hit a wall and could not do so, eight out of 10 students would quit, Chung said.
In the remaining class time, Li would talk about art history, he said, adding that Li wanted them to be open-minded and have foresight.
Chung said that only in the end, when Li’s students finally discovered themselves did they realize how great a teacher Li was.
Back then, the gathering of two people was enough to make the Taiwan Garrison Command suspicious of communist ties, he said.
China-born woodcut artist Huang Rongcan (黃榮燦), who belonged to the same art group as Li and was his former roommate, was executed during the White Terror era, Chung said.
Subsequently, when his students were planning to form the East Painting Association in 1956, Li packed his bags and hid in Changhua County’s Yuanlin Township (員林), he said.
However, the museum said Li moved to Changhua in 1955 due to his rheumatism.
His students found him teaching in Changhua a year later, Chung said.
Thankfully, then-secret police chief Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) had heard that abstract art was trending worldwide and allowed the East Painting Association to be established.
Chung said he suspects that the incident might be a reason why Li seems to have post-traumatic stress disorder.
Li would often spend long periods of time washing his hands in the hallway, and half an hour washing his paint brushes, he said.
He was also afraid to eat the mooncakes his students gave him for Mid-Autumn Festival, leaving them around until mold grew on them, he said.
When Li passed away in 1984, 69 students were on his funeral committee.
Although Li only held two exhibitions in his lifetime, in his 34 years of teaching, he gave rise to many important artists of the post-World War II modern art period.
The exhibition “Pioneers of the Avant-Garde Movement in Taiwan: From Li Chun-Shan to His Disciples” is divided into three themes: works from the Andong Street studio, works from Li’s time in Changhua and works by Li’s students.
Li’s art incorporates concepts of the Freudian unconscious, surrealism, automatism and abstract art to transfer his inner emotions onto the canvas, exhibition curator Tao Wen-yueh (陶文岳) said.
He taught one-on-one, adjusted his teaching based on the qualities of each individual student and was a pioneer of modern art in Taiwan, Tao added.
This story has been updated since it was first published to correct the English name of the East Painting Association.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching