Chen Chih-chi ( zh, t=陳植棋, p=, w=Ch'ên2 Chih2-ch'i2, poj=Tân Si̍t-kî; 16 January 1906 - 13 April 1931) was a Taiwanese painter.

Early life

Born and raised in ''Sui-teng-ka'' (modern-day

Xizhi District Xizhi () is an inner city district in eastern New Taipei City in northern Taiwan, and is located between Taipei City and Keelung City. Compared to most districts in eastern New Taipei, which are very sparsely populated, Xizhi is one of the mor ...

, Taipei), Chen Chih-chi was a forthright and bold person by nature, with noteworthy leadership abilities. He entered Taihoku Normal School in 1921 and, in 1924, he joined

Kinichiro Ishikawa was a Japanese painter. He taught part-time in Taiwan at the University of Taipei and as full-time instructor at the Taiwan Mandarin Institute. He promoted modern western art education in Taiwan and was considered a pioneer of art education. In T ...

’s

plein air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or plein-air painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting is c ...

field trips. His experiences with Ishikawa inspired his paintings. In November 1924, he was expelled from school after becoming involved in a student protest. On the suggestion of Ishikawa Kinichiro and Tōho Shiotsuki, he left Taiwan to study painting in Japan. In February of 1925, he arrived in Tokyo and began studying at the Hongō Painting Institute before entering the Western Painting Division of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. In addition to his formal classes, he also studied at the Yoshimura Painting Studio, where he was influenced by Yoshimura Yoshimatsu.

Work and public life

During his time studying in Tokyo, he remained concerned about the development of art communities in Taiwan and made frequent trips back and forth between Taiwan and Japan. Chen became an important founder of organizations like the “Chi-Hsing Painting Society” (七星畫壇) and the “Chidao Association” (赤島社). He was both warm and generous towards others. Up and coming artists like

Lee Shih-chiao Lee Shih-chiao (; 13 July 1908 – 7 July 1995) was a Taiwanese painter. His art education and career began when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. Most of his paintings were realistic, but he also created some cubist works in his mid-life. He cont ...

Hung Jui-lin Hung Jui-lin (Âng Sūi-lîn, May 7, 1912 - December 3, 1996) was a Taiwanese artist from Taipei's Dadaocheng district. He is often referred to as the "Miner Painter" and is also hailed for bringing forth a "Radiance from the Depths of the Earth." ...

Chang Wan-chuan Chang Wan-chuan (May 28, 1909 – January 12, 2003) was born in Tamsui, Taipei, Taiwan. He is one of the early 20th-century Taiwanese painters who traveled to Japan for the study of Western painting. His artistic creations are primarily characteriz ...

, and

Chen De-wang Chen De-wang (also known as Chen Te-wang; October 22, 1910 - December 3, 1984), a native of Taipei, Taiwan, was an artist during the Taiwan under Japanese rule in Taiwan and later worked as a teacher. Life In 1925, Chen De-wang was a student ...

all received his encouragement and went to Japan for further study. In order to gain recognition in art world, he put his extraordinary talents and efforts to the task of continually producing new works. Between 1924 and 1931, when he died of illness, his works were selected twice for the Imperial Art Exhibition, three times for the Taiwan Art Exhibition, and three times with review exemption for the Taiwan Art Exhibition – extraordinary achievements for his brief, seven-year long career. In addition, there are records of his work having been exhibited in ten other large and small scale art exhibitions.

Death

In April 1931, he died in Taihoku. at the age of 26. In September of the same year, a posthumous exhibition of Chen’s works was held in his honor at the former building of Taiwan Governor-General's Office.

Painting style

His works were primary

oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

s, and his themes included sceneries and

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

s, and figures. His works were influenced by

Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

and

Fauvism Fauvism ( ) is a style of painting and an art movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the style of (, ''the wild beasts''), a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong col ...

, but demonstrated a strong personal style through wild, vigorous brushwork and his bold use of color. His scenic paintings were devoted to illustrating the special characteristics of nature in Taiwan. Examples of such work include: ''Taiwan Landscape'' (Selected for the 9th Teiten in 1928) and ''Tamsui Landscape'' (selected for the 11th Teiten in 1930). A series of portrait paintings of his wife includes works such as: ''Fond of Peaches'' (Ai Tao) (1927), ''My Wife'' (1927), and ''The Wife'' (1930~1931). These works present courageous, firm, and persistent images of Taiwanese women. Tan Tit-ki self-portrait

References

External links