Sun, Nov 10, 2002 page19

• Taking calligraphy to extremes

  Born at a time when changing family values and Western ideas were eroding China's social structure, Tseng Yuho was one of the first women to use her art as a way to challenge the system

  • By Gavin Phipps / STAFF REPORTER
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  In celebration of one China's most forward thinking artists and, as in the words of respected museum director, Huang Kuang-nan (黃光男), "to encourage creativity in art," Taipei's National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館) is holding a special exhibition of works by Tseng Yuho.

  Entitled Images Collecting (意象綴集), the exhibition consists of 124 of Tseng's most innovative works from the last 50 years.

  It's hard to imagine the soft-spoken, pensive and ever-cordial artist and calligrapher as a revolutionary these days. Now in her late 70s, Tseng has all the trappings of everyone's favorite granny and then some.

  

  Mumbling in the Woods.

  In her youth, however, both her father, her teachers and even many of her peers considered many of her ideas radical or even seditious.

  Born in Beijing in 1925 to a literati family, Tseng's first inadvertent challenge to the age-old system took place in 1940, when she became one of the first Chinese women to be granted permission to enroll in Beijing's Fujen University (輔仁大學).

  Not that Tseng stopped there. In 1945 she did the unthinkable and married a non-Chinese, the eminent Sinologist, Gustav Ecke, who along with being a foreign national, was also German, a nation with which China was, theoretically at least, at war.

  

  Heart of a Newly Born Baby.

  And as if all this wasn't enough to shock, Tseng set about re-writing the long accepted norms that governed the way in which generations of calligraphers had gone about their business when she began to blend traditional Chinese art practices with Western concepts.

  Many believe that is was Tseng's highly unconventional lifestyle, as well her many journeys to foreign lands, that led her to become the pioneer of a style of art later dubbed "dsui" (掇) -- a word that means "to plagiarize." It is a rather an odd term for a style of art as unique as Tseng's.

  Tseng and her husband moved to Hawaii in 1953, where she became the Asian art consultant at the Honolulu Academy of Arts -- a position she still holds today.

  In addition to working as a creative artist, Tseng has also published countless papers and books dealing with Chinese art and calligraphy. The most important is A History of Chinese Calligraphy, which was published by The Chinese University Press in 1993 and is now considered the bible of calligraphy both by sinologists and students of Chinese art around the world.

  The exhibition spans her work from the relatively conventional Seven Juniper Trees (七檜圖) painted in 1945 to recent work like Lines Wonder (筆妙), an abstract acrylic and aluminum piece. It also includes photographs and news-cuttings from Tseng's eventful life.

  This combination makes the current exhibition much more than simply an art show. It is instead a celebration of a truly singular artist.

  What: Images Collecting: An Exhibition of Tseng Yuho's Art Works (意象綴集 曾佑和作品展)
  

  Where: National Museum of History, 49 Nanhai Rd.,Taipei (國立歷史博物館台北市南海路49號)
  

  When: Until Dec. 2
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Control Yuan member quits over misuse of vehicle

  • 2

    Greek basketball finals suspended following scuffles

  • 3

    Taipei ranks 60 in ‘Global Cities Index,’ up five spots

  • 4

    Taiwan denies hacking, as China issues bounties

  • 5

    Woman sentenced to six years for recruiting for China