Naïve art

This week, the teacher talked about Naïve art. Naïve artist means the artist not educated in school. The teacher introduced an artist, Hung Tung. He was a farmer before he began to paint. He started his artist career when he was fifty-five years old. He was good at using line structure, and the most wonderful part of his painting is the line and color he used. His painting is full of passion and religious. He was the representative artist of the tradition of the 1970’s Taiwan society.













I felt warm when I saw his painting, the things he painted was much closed to our lives. 

Monet’s Garden

Last weekend, I went to see Monet’s Garden, the famous exhibition in Taipei Fine Arts Museum. The exhibition showcased Monet’s famous paintings of scenery and flowers created in his garden in Giverny, accompanied by his other creations of landscape paintings. It’s the first time that I saw Impressionism’s exhibition. It took imagination to understand the paintings. The artist used the quick impression of the scenery and depicted light and shadow to draw the painting.

I had learned more about art by went to the exhibition, I thought it’s a good activity when you feel bored. Maybe next time you feel like doing something, go to an exhibition and you will find many new things to see and to learn.

The Root of A Painter

When I read a book called Art and Culture Politics in Postwar Taiwan, I noticed a sentence that the author, Jason Kou, quoted. It said “Art cannot be confined within frontiers—it lives only if continually subjected to foreign invasions, to migrations and transplantations. But if art’s vitality comes from the cross-bleeding of styles, its stability comes from roots that grow deep into a native soil.” Those words were used to conclude the work of the painter, Chen Chikwen.

I agreed with those words, based on my knowledge of Chen Chikwen’s life and his work. His early work was western style. Then in his middle work, he began to try more stylistic choices and try modern Chinese sensibility. His late work became deliberate and innovative. He extended the Chinese tradition to create a modern Chinese approach to painting. He, at last, made his art in the roots of Chinese.

A Question Raised in Class

A student in class asked the teacher a question, “Why are we talking about Chinese, Taiwanese, Italian, and French in class? In Europe, we only talk about what types of art.” Teacher answered, “Because the national identity in Europe has already set up. The question we discuss in class becomes a crucial problem in Taiwan recently.

Since our course title is “Art in Taiwan”, we have to figure out what Taiwanese art is in terms of culture and in terms of history. That’s why we keep talking about this topic.

This was my question before the student asked the teacher. After the answer was given, I understood the whole ideas the teacher wanted to gave us. Then I had more interested in this class and wanted to know more about art with culture and with history.

Definition of Art in Taiwan

As we talk about art in Taiwan, what would you think about? Art made in Taiwan, Taiwanese art, or something else? The teacher talked about art in historical and political view. She mentioned that neither of the definitions of ‘Taiwan’ and ‘art’ is easy, so we might take more time to grab the concept. Because Taiwan has been occupied by many different countries, art in Taiwan is very various.

<Flora Expo in Taipei>

In my opinion, I would say art in Taiwan is that art made in Taiwan. We don’t have to care so much about who is the person that created art, because every art created is very precious.

The National Palace Museum

As we know, the National Palace Museum is a place where many precious things are stored. But does anyone think about what the Palace Museum should be now? What’s its role?

From the teacher’s point of view, because the Republic of China is different from the People’s Republic of China, Chinese art is being redefined in “native” Taiwanese terms, and we need to redefine “national” for the museum. And the museum also needs to face new generations that don’t think of this island as China.

I think we should see the National Palace Museum and the precious things in the museum as Taiwan’s treasures and we can have more exhibitions in the museum to make its value more.