Chang Wam-Chuan and Lin Chin-Hsien
May 30, 2008
I thought to see Chang Wan-Chuan’s（張萬傳）Centennial Celebration exhibition for a long time. Several days ago, a newspaper showed a still-life with peonies by a contemporary artist, Lin Chin-Hsien（林欽賢）. This painting greatly attracted me because it has an extraordinary classical atmosphere. Therefore, I went to visit the Taipei Fine Arts Museum after the class in Taiwan University and before I attended the ceremony of the Lee’s Biomedical Foundation Awards.
I abandoned painting two years ago, for which I could not forgive myself for a long time. Later, I acknowledged that I might not pick up the brushes at least for a period of time. However, I have still been enthusiastic at arts. I ran through many museums and galleries around the world; I particularly have followed Impressionists’ footsteps to the beauty of the world.
I like Chang’s paintings. I collected a copy of his print eight years ago. Since then, this print has been hanging on the wall of the living room. The visual tension of his works is emphasized by strong and simple outlines and vivid colors. He constantly used large and powerful brush strokes. Chang had the style of both Fauves and Expressionists. His painting “The Sakura Island” reminded me Paul Cézanne’s “Mont Sainte-Victoire”. His nudes are reminiscent of Cézanne’ bathers. His still-lives with a variety of fruits were Cézanne plus Gauguin. “The Notre Dame of Paris” shows wonderful blue sky and Siena that I have indeed witnessed last summer. Lin appeared to combine Realism and Symbolism. He painted peonies and lilies that are representative of Chinese and indigenous cultures, respectively. His still-lives with flowers are somewhat too much realistic, like those by French and Flemish artists in the 18-19 centuries.
This time, I learned that both these two artists used mixed materials including watercolor, oil, crayon, charcoal, pencil, pastel and even marker. Particularly, I like pastel; its lightness could be compensated by the heaviness of oil. I wish I could have the skill to paint freely on the canvas like an artist. Nevertheless, I am short of time and energy these years.
Millet and His Time: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay
2008-06-10
I drove Ben to the Taipei Airport and then went to AIT for my visa renewal. I got there too early. Unfortunately, I was unable to get an issued visa after a long interview, which forced me to cancel my US trip to the Gordon Conference. Although I was upset, I still went to the National History Museum for the Millet exhibition.
This exhibition was really unusual because two world-renowned paintings of Millet “The Gleaners” and “The Angelus” came together from d’Orsay to Taipei. I saw them last year at their home. These two paintings simply deliver a kind of graceful message to me. Besides, I did not have much insightful thoughts. There were several portraits and landscapes by Millet, which even had no attraction to me. “The Seamstress” depicting a woman with a blue skirt was reminiscent of Vermeer; the introduction described the influence of Chardin on this painting.
Except for Millet, the exhibition also included many other painters in the Barbizon school. In general, I do not like landscape painting. However, there were three landscapes by Camille Corot, one of my favorite artists. The “Evening” looked so familiar to me. The nature reveals a tranquilizing, timeless but sometimes depressing atmosphere. The scenery of his landscapes is somewhat like that I have seen in rural Tuscany. Today I learned that Corot indeed had traveled to Italy. “The Willows by the River” reveals the beauty of transparency and mist. Unlike Corot, the subjects in the works by Dupre, Rousseau and some others look too much detailed. “Interior of a Farmyard in Fontainebleau” is similar to some Flemish paintings. It turned out that my guess was correct. Decamps indeed had studied the 17th century paintings in Netherlands. Among all the paintings, “The Daisy” by an American artist, William M. Hunt impressed me. From my point of view, thiscountrywoman portrait appears to be influenced by Vermeer and somewhat by Millet.
Camille Pissarro: Family and Friends 2008/06/23 After I attended a progress report in Yang-Ming, I went to the Palace Museum for the Pissarro exhibition. The works on exhibit came from the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University, including some by Camille Pissarro and some by his sons and his friends or fellows. The highlighted painting of Pissarro was “View from my Window, Eragny-sur-Epte”, in which he applied colorful dots on the canvas to create the flat image. This technique was initiated by Louis Hayet (1864-1940). However, I preferred his three paintings showing morning mist, sunset and rainy weather; they wonderfully revealed some untouchable elements, moist and light; I like his still life with pink peonies. I watched a video which described “Light is the source of his joy as well as his pain”. Corot’s landscapes always give a mysterious atmosphere, as you would be led into some place like heaven. “Montfermeuil, the brook in the wood” exactly shows such an atmosphere that merges from very soft light in the middle of the forest. Corot has a sketch “Souvenir d’Italie”, which confirmed my guess that he had been there. Manet and Renoir each had one landscape painting in this exhibition. One could easily distinguish their style. Overall, the exhibition was not superb but good to learn more about Pissarro.
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