About Li Chun-Shan (李仲生)
Born in Shaoguan, China in 1912, Li Chun-Shan enrolled in Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts in 1930 and joined China’s first painting group that advocated modern art, Juelanshe (The Storm Society). In 1932, he went to Japan, and coincidentally began studying at the night school of the Tokyo Institute of Avant-Garde Fine Arts, where he was inspired by Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita’s anti-academic teaching approach. His works were consecutively selected into Japan’s most avant-garde art exhibition at the time, the Nikakai, in which he was given the honor of being exempted from examination. Li moved to Taiwan in 1949, and started his lifelong dedication in teaching and writing about international avant-garde art waves and modern art.
Li learned about Freud’s theory of the subconscious and Surrealism when he studied in Japan. He then incorporated surrealistic elements into his creative method, creating rational compositions mixed with energies of individual subconscious. His abstract works from mid to late career stages adopt the automatic technique and demonstrate a sense of freedom and speed with Eastern calligraphic line and brushstrokes interwoven with colors that form a symbolic, multilayered space of spirituality. The intertwining cross structures speak of the artist’s inner conflicts and struggles, as if the undercurrents of passion and vitality are overflowing from the image.
Among the three types of works ever created by the artist, the sketch works were mostly done with red and blue ball pens. The seemingly spontaneous lines delineate an imaginary space beyond the printed lines of the notebooks. His small-scale watercolor and ink painting feature lively and vivid lines of colors and vibrant color blocks that freely meander in blank space. Li’s oil painting, on the other hand, shows dense, heavy layers of colors charged with emotions on the brim of a powerful burst.