The pronunciation of "modeng" in Chinese is the transliteration of English "modern", referring modern revelation of daily life style, architecture and design, plan and system etc. Moreover, it is opposite to tradition and custom, also signifying the western and the new. In Taiwanese history, the concept of "modeng" becomes another thinking of modernization and colonial modernity. The rising of landscape painting is germane to modernity and the development of Taiwanese landscape painting reflects such condition of colonial modernity. Except delineating beautiful view, landscape painting reveals a visual assertion: for the specific topic, area, people and matter, natural elements, composition etc, showing a kind of preference and concern, such as modern architectures and special totems. This kind of modern facility in the Taiwanese landscape painting becomes an indispensible part of visual signs. They repeatedly appear to us, announcing the coming of new life which becomes a "modern spectacle". Incorporating modern facility in painting by the Taiwanese artists in the colonial period, Chen Cheng-po perhaps is not the only one or the first one; however, he is regarded as one of the most "stubborn" painter. His fascination on electric poles emphasizes the characteristics of composition: An ushering function and dramatic effect, as such, containing an eye-catching visual focus. In the process of taking scenery into painting, nature and culture merge as a new aesthetic order. Nevertheless, except describing modern Taiwanese landscape and the sense of local identity, such appropriation of subject also points Chen's inner exploration of creation: Appropriating modern facility such as the linear characteristics of electric poles and natural objects to create a more complicated "space fold", for holding the space narratives of landscape and the research project of landscape composition. Electric poles therefore possess the double meaning of sign and form: The former reveals the modernity of landscape painting, the latter, the issue of space design which the artist concerns most.
The United States became world's art center after WWII. It is a shrine to many artists. Ju Ming also believed in his heart that he had to go there some day. In fact, he headed toward New York in 1980 and pursued his art career there. This journey was a very important step for Ju Ming in terms of his going international. It also had significant impact on his later art creation. Yet there is not much research on this period.
This paper looks at this rarely-mentioned period by examining collection records and documents borrowed from National Gallery of Australia Research Library Archives, i.e., information of the many galleries opened by Max Hutchinson, who was Ju Ming's art agent in the United States, personal letters of Ju Ming archived in Juming Museum, and interviews with Ju Ming to better understand this period and further discusses the meaning and influence this period has on Ju Ming.
Keywords
Ju Ming, sculpture, New York, Taiwanese Art, Max Hutchinson Gallery
Taiwanese sculptor Huang Tu-Shui (1895-1930) was born in Taipei under Japanese rule. He went to Japan to study modern sculpture and he was selected for the Imperial Art Exhibition in Tokyo. He not only succeeded in the world of sculpture at that time in Japan, but, as he chose Taiwanese motifs for the main subjects in his creations, Huang Tu-Shui was also a pioneer in Taiwanese art. As one of the earliest modern Taiwanese artists, studies and discussion of Huang Tu-Shui have already developed to a certain extent in Taiwan, especially since the 1980s. However, due to the limitations of materials and records, past studies were not able to fully analyze the relationships between Huang Tu-Shui's works and the elements of Japanese modern sculpture or the influence of his education in sculpture at the Tokyo Fine Arts School. This paper, based on several primary and newly found secondary sources, inquires into Huang Tu Shui's early activities during his school days in Japan, as analyzing the background and substance of the "modern sculpture" that he studied, aims to accurately comprehend his artistic career.
At the Tokyo Fine Arts School, Huang Tu-Shui worked some in the study of traditional Edo-style wood sculpture begun by Takamura K un, simultaneously also learning the skills of western-style sculpture, such as modeling in clay and sculpting in marble. Before he came to Japan, Huang Tu-Shui was close to traditional Chinese culture in Taiwan, but when he faced changing trends in Japanese sculpture, he also began to seek more modern Taiwanese motifs. From the beginning of Japanese modern art history in the Meiji era, ancient Japanese arts and sculpture were greatly respected; this might be the appropriate background for the consideration of Huang Tu-Shui's denial of the Taiwanese culture of the past and advocacy of the modernization of Taiwanese art at the beginning of the 1920s. This attitude of questing modernization and seeking out of characteristics of Taiwan in the fine arts was similar in certain aspects to the attitudes of some Japanese intellectuals during the colonial period. Huang Tu-Shui exhibited several works having Taiwanese motives in the Imperial Art Exhibition and came to prominence. On the other hand, in Taiwan under the dominance of the Imperial Japanese forces, his activities also were in accord with the process that Taiwan was included in the Japanese Empire as one of its regions.
Keywords
Huang Tu-Shui, Imperial Art Exhibition, Modern Japanese Sculpture, Tokyo Fine Arts School, Taiwanese Culture
臺藝大校園雕塑藝術作品介紹之三：1970 年代藝專出國深造的雕塑家──張子隆（1947-）與李光裕1954-）Sculpture Art in the NTUA Campus, Series 1: The Establisher of Taiwanese Modern Sculpture Education-Chiu Yunn（1912-2009）
Post: Juming Museum, No.2, Xishihu, Jinshan District, New Taipei City 20842, TAIWAN (R.O.C.) addressing to “Sculpture Research Semiyearly Editorial Board”
