Double Square 双方藝廊

Li Chun-Shan

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.

Chu Wei-Bor

Born in Nanjing, China in 1929, Chu Wei-Bor’s given name is Chu Wu-Shuen whereas “Wei-Bor” is the artist’s pseudonym. He began learning painting at Liao Chi-Chun’s Yun-He Art Studio in 1953, and later embarked on his quest of modern art after became inspired by modernist pioneer Li Chun-Shan. In 1958, he joined the Ton Fan Art Group and partook in the post-war modern art movement in Taiwan, hoping to explore the thinking and value of traditional Chinese humanistic spirit and individual emotions and feelings through Western abstract expression.

When he first became a painter, Chu was under the influence of surrealist artists like Joan Miró and Marc Chagall, which formed the basis of his later work in child art education. After he joined the Ton Fan Art Group, he boldly experimented with non-traditional media and techniques that allowed him to explore creations other than painting, and gradually shifted his focus from aesthetic expression to Eastern philosophical thinking that transformed his style into a more minimalistic and unadorned one and contributed to the formation of his distinctive artistic vocabulary. Growing up in a family of tailors, Chu replaced paint brushes with knife and scissors, slicing, layering and collaging materials such as cotton fabric, linen cloth and paper. His slicing deconstructs and penetrates the pure, monochromatic canvas and paper, creating a spatial depth of vivid layers and transcending the limitation of two-dimensional painting. His work not only embodies a visual image, but also manifests the artist’s contemplation on space as well as his understandings of life and the wisdom he has derived from them.

Ho Kan

Ho Kan was born in Nanjing, China in 1932. He used to live in Milan, Italy for five decades and only moved back to Taiwan recently. In 1949, the artist followed the Nationalist Government to settle down in Taiwan, and enrolled in the Fine Art Department of Taiwan Provincial Normal School in 1950. Due to unexpected opportunity, Ho became Li Chun-Shan’s student, whose thinking has been a lasting influence throughout Ho’s career. Ho is considered one of the representative figures of Taiwan’s modern art movement that peaked in the 1960s.

Ho’s earliest work reveals a surrealistic style informed by mysticism and singularity and demonstrates his attention to geometric shapes that he would develop later. After he settled down in Milan, Ho established his style of geometric abstraction and dedicated his time to exploring the nature of painting. He employed basic elements such as dots, lines, planes and color blocks to carry out his study of composition, refining his individual abstract expression with this approach. He usually starts with the element of “dots,” from which he then arranges the overall image to substantiate the existence of all elements in his work. Ho’s painting style has also shifted from an experimental and somber style visible in his earlier works to a brighter, livelier one visualized by his recent works. Using the approach of “reduction” to construct his abstraction, Ho’s work is simple as it is poetic, showing a more encompassing world of abstract expression while echoing the Eastern philosophy that believes all things are mutually complementing and unlimitedly regenerating.

Hsiao Chin

Born in Shanghai, China in 1935, Hsiao Chin moved to Taiwan in 1949 and enrolled in Taiwan Provincial Normal School, where he studied painting under two influential figures in the history of Chinese contemporary painting, Chu Teh-Chun and Li Chun-Shan. He participated in the establishment of the Ton Fan Art Group and is one of the “Eight Great Outlaws.” After pursuing further study in Spain, he stayed abroad for over four decades. Hsiao was the founder of the Punto International Art Movement, the Surya Art Movement and the Shakti Art Movement, and has been active in the international art scene. He moved back to Taiwan in 1996, and was appointed a teaching position at the Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts, Tainan National University of the Arts. After his retirement, he has been honored with the Star of Italian Solidarity by the president of Italy.

Hsiao is a pioneer in launching Chinese modern and contemporary art in the 50s as well as a driving force in facilitating Chinese and Western contemporary art exchange in Europe. Drawing inspiration from Taoist and Zen philosophy, he integrates Eastern and Western culture into his creative experience in modern art, practicing spiritual self-awareness with direct expression of the self. For the artist, artistic creation is not the ultimate goal in life but a means to explore the journey of life and discover the potentials of the mind and the true meaning of unity between the universe and human beings.

Hwang Buh-Ching

Hwang Buh-Ching was born in Changhua in 1948. He graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Normal University in 1976, and received his master’s degree in plastic art from the University of Paris St-Denis, France. Hwang started studying modern painting with Li Chun-Shan in 1969 and studied the method of photorealism by delineating the crowd on the streets of Taipei in photographs. In 1981, he went to France, where he learned and absorbed new knowledge and information and became identified with Arte Povera, the post-war art movement that emphasized on exploring humanistic awareness and innovation with ordinary materials. He then began experimenting with various media and techniques to create experimental and creative works.

After his return to Taiwan, Hwang started making mixed media art, using techniques such as collage, assemblage and installation to transform common objects available in daily life into expressions of personal ideas. He specializes in using natural and raw materials – water, wood, grass, iron or other useless materials – to embody the power of plastic forms, uncover the meanings of ordinary things, reveal the beauty of disposed objects and endow them with fresh meanings. Through his diverse works, including painting, three-dimensional creations, media art and environmental art, Hwang demonstrates a certain religious sentiment informed by a sense of mysticism.

Chen Hsing-Wan

Born in Taichung in 1951, Chen Hsing-Wan was the third daughter of the renowned Taiwanese sculptor, Chen Hsia-Yu. She graduated from the Western Painting Division of the National Academy of Arts in 1972, and became Li Chun-Shan’s pupil in 1981. Inspired by Li’s teaching, she began an extensive practice in automatic drawing while starting creatively experimenting mixed media, incorporating wall paint, plaster and fabric into her paintings to enrich the texture and volume. Using methods of scraping, pasting and painting, Chen unveiled a unique mixture of beauty and gloom in her work. In 1992, she received France’s 10-year residence permit for artists and began travelling between Europe and Taiwan. She passed away in Paris due to breast cancer.

Chen’s work oscillates between abstract expression and automatic techniques. Through bold experimentation with diverse materials, she explored unexpected, organic forms of different materials and constructed a visual language that simultaneously embodied strength and tenderness. Her extensive traveling experience also inspired her to add animal fur, old clothes, hemp rope, wood and found objects into her two-dimensional works, rendering them relief-like and three-dimensional. A spiritual force in painting thus broke free from the two-dimensional frame and extended into the surrounding space. In the 90s, she began a large body of works created with ink and extended the spirit of automatic writing into letting the ink freely meander on paper. Chen pursued the unadulterated, authentic and unpretentious original form and spirituality through her creative work, which served as documentation of her own contemplation and comprehension of life and nature.

Chu Teh-I

Chu Teh-I was born in Korea in 1952. He graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Normal University in 1976. In 1974, he began studying art with Li Chun-Shan, who guided him to explore pure abstract expression informed by the characteristics of the subconscious. In 1978, Chu began his study at L'Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, and later L'Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts-Decoratifs de Paris, during which he was inspired by the art and thinking of Russian Suprematist artist Malevich. He then started combining Li’s abstraction of mental imagery with Malevich’s composition of colorful planes. Whereas the former inspired Chu’s exploration of the subconscious world that expanded his artistic originality and expression, the latter taught him the methodical order of composition and form.

Since he started creating abstract painting over four decades ago, Chu has been boldly and freely challenging himself and showing his insights into the use of colors and the unique beauty of conflicting materials through continuous and unflinching experimentation. With a profound understanding of colors, Chu’s work displays both contrasting and complementing colors as well as the merging and overlapping of similar color systems. Combining his unfettered splashes of vibrant colors with meticulously planned geometric color blocks, he is able to reach a perfect balance between bursting emotions and a controlled stability in the rhythm of the image. Chu’s abstract work, which has its roots in colliding inner experiences from both Eastern and Western culture, visualizes the technique of flat application used in geometric abstraction, the spontaneous splashing of paint and the inking of Chinese ink painting, fully demonstrating his mastery of colors.

Li Jiin-Shiow

Li Jiin-Shiow was born in Chiayi in 1953. She graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Normal University in 1976, and later L'Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts-Decoratifs de Paris, where she graduated with the top honor of “Talens.” During 1974 and 1976, Li studied under Li Chun-Shan with her classmate Hwang Buh-Ching. Li mainly created abstract and semi-abstract painting. Incorporating Li Chun-Shan’s teaching of modern art into her creative work, Li continued exploring the subconscious and created works featuring mental imagery, showing a formal language that was highly individualistic. Li Chun-Shan, Liao Chi-Chun, Shiy De-Jiin and Liao Shiou-Ping were all influential contributors to her modern, avant-garde thinking and international perspectives. She passed away in Tainan in 2003.

Li’s early work featured her representation of family and memory. While studying in France, she became interested in transparent materials and refraction of light. After returning to Taiwan, her focus shifted to portraying trees with lines reminiscent of Eastern calligraphic writing as well as the multilayered space constructed with daily living traces and objects. Placing an emphasis on the conceptual aspect of art, Li paid attention to spaces inhabited by human beings and excelled at capturing the fluidity and penetrability of space with sketches. Her work is invested with profound emotions and exudes subjective feelings. She also emphasized on the relationship between the inner world and the creations, displaying a delicate attitude and sentiment that is characteristic of the female sex.