Chen Jin (painter)
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Chen Chin (; November 2, 1907 March 27, 1998), also written as Ch'en Chin, was a Taiwanese painter, known for her paintings of women (''
bijin is a Japanese term which literally means "a beautiful person" and is synonymous with . Girls are usually called , while men are known as and boys are . The term originally derives from the Middle Chinese word (; modern Standard Chinese ), an ...
''). She is said to be the first Taiwanese woman painter to earn national recognition.


Life and career

Chen was born into an affluent family in Kōzan, Shinchiku, during
Japanese rule of Taiwan The Geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, together with the Penghu, Penghu Islands, became an annexed territory of the Empire of Japan in 1895, when the Qing dynasty ceded Taiwan Province, Fujian-Taiwan Province in the Treaty of Shimonoseki a ...
. Her father was an official in the Japanese colonial government. A patron of the arts, he supported his daughter's pursuit of an artistic education, an unconventional path for women at the time. Chen studied at the Taihoku Prefectural Taihoku Third Girls' High School, where she painted for the first time. Under the recognition and encouragement of her teacher, Gobara Koto, she went abroad to study painting in Japan. By 1925, she was accepted into the Normal Education Division in Japanese Painting at Tokyo Women's Academy of Fine Arts, becoming the first Taiwanese female artist to study in Japan. She began to study under teachers such as Yuuki Somei and Endou Kyouzou. In 1928, she became acquainted with the Taiwan Art Exhibition juror, Matsubayashi Keigetsu. Through his introduction, she became pupil of the Japanese ''
bijin-ga is a generic term for pictures of beautiful women () in Japanese art, especially in woodblock printing of the ukiyo-e genre. Definition defines as a picture that simply "emphasizes the beauty of women", and the ''Shincho Encyclopedia of W ...
'' (美人畫, pictures of beautiful women) painter
Kaburagi Kiyokata was the art-name of a Nihonga artist and the leading master of the ''bijin-ga'' genre in the Taishō and Shōwa eras. His legal name was Kaburaki Ken'ichi. The artist himself used the reading "Kaburaki", but many Western (and some Japanese) sourc ...
, and received instruction from Kaburagi’s disciples, Itou Shinsui and
Yamakawa Shūhō was a Japanese painter active in the Taishō and Shōwa period, Shōwa eras, as well as a printmaker of the Shin-hanga movement. He was born in Kyoto with the name Yamakawa Yoshio. His first teacher, Ikegami Shūhō (1874-1944), gave him the ...
. In 1927, the Taiwanese government sponsored the inaugural ''
Taiten The Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition, also referred to as the Taiwan Arts Exhibition, Taiwan Exhibition, or "Taiten" for short, was Taiwan's first large-scale art exhibition. It was held ten times from 1927 to 1936 and was organised by the Taiwan Educ ...
'', the Taiwan Art Exhibition. Controversially, out of 92 total participants, three unknown 19-year-old artists were the only Taiwanese artists included: Chen,
Kuo Hsueh-hu Kuo Hsueh-hu (Taiwanese: Kueh Suat-ôo, April 10, 1908 – January 23, 2012), born Kuo Chin-huo, was a pioneering Taiwanese gouache painter. He was born in Taipei's Dadaocheng, which was then part of Taiwan's Taipei Prefecture (now Datong District ...
, and
Lin Yushan Lin Yushan (; 1 April 1907 – 20 August 2004), originally named Lin Yinggui (), was a Taiwanese visual artist. Early life Lin was raised in a family-owned picture framing store. Lin grew up with an early passion for painting, and his first ...
. The trio became known as the "Three Youths in ''Taiten''" and earned significant media attention, launching their careers. Chen's works were regularly selected for subsequent ''taiten'' exhibitions, where she won multiple awards. She later served as a juror at the exhibition. From 1934 to 1938, Chen taught art at in Taiwan, becoming the country's first woman high school teacher. During this time, she submitted her artwork to the ''
Teiten The is a Japanese art exhibition established in 1907. The exhibition consists of five art faculties: Japanese Style and Western Style Painting, Sculpture, Craft as Art, and Sho (calligraphy). During each exhibition, works of the great masters ar ...
'' (the Japanese Imperial Art Exhibition), and her piece ''Ensemble'' (
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
and ) was accepted in 1934, with ''The Bridal Chamber'' (, ) accepted the following year. Chen married in 1946, at the age of 39. She had one son; her husband also had six children from a previous marriage. In 1946, Chen Jin served as a juror for the Taiwan Provincial Art Exhibition while continuing to produce her own work. Making a thematic shift, she produced the works Infant, Little Boy, Children’s World, and Familial Portrait to show the family through the eyes of loving mothers and elderly people. Though she tended to focus on figure painting, Chen Jin also accepted a commission from Taipei’s Fa-kuang Temple which led to the production of her series of The Buddha’s Work (1965-1967). In 1958, she self-funded her first solo exhibition, showcasing 62 of her works at Chung-Shan Hall in Taipei. In 1986, the
Taipei Fine Arts Museum The Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM; ) is a museum in Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. It is in the Taipei Expo Park. The museum first opened on August 8, 1983, at the former site of the United States Taiwan Defense Command. It was the first ...
held a retrospective exhibition of her work to celebrate her 80th birthday; the
National Museum of History The National Museum of History (NMH; ) is located in the Nanhai Academy in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan. After the Republic of China government moved to Taiwan, the National Museum of History was the first museum to be established in Tai ...
held a retrospective exhibition ten years later. In her later years, she traveled back and forth between Taiwan and the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. These experiences led to a thematic expansion in her work, which began to include
landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a cohe ...
s. Chen continued to paint until her death in 1998.


Painting style

Chen Jin’s focus was primarily in
gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouach ...
painting, with a special emphasis on figures paintings. From 1927 onward, she was selected numerous times for the Taiwan Art Exhibition (''Taiten''); her work ''Ensemble'' was selected for the Imperial Art Exhibition (''Teite''n) in 1934. Chen's personal style developed gradually. She often explored daily home life and the ideal form of the Taiwanese lady through meticulous brush technique and refined color, in works that reveal the special qualities of elegant ladies from high society. Chen's most famous works exemplifying her style include: Wearing Makeup, Pandanus, Another Day and Quiet Contemplation.


Legacy

Chen is recognized as Taiwan's first prominent woman painter. In 2003, the
National Museum of History The National Museum of History (NMH; ) is located in the Nanhai Academy in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan. After the Republic of China government moved to Taiwan, the National Museum of History was the first museum to be established in Tai ...
held an exhibition titled "The Beauty of Chen Chin's Ladies," showcasing 32 of her works dating from 1932 through 1998. In 2006, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of her birth, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum presented an exhibition titled "Centennial Celebration of Chen Chin" at three Japanese museums: the Shoto Museum of Art, the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, and the
Fukuoka Art Museum is an art museum in Fukuoka, Japan. It contains a notable collection of Western and Asian art, and exhibits various temporary exhibitions. In November 2010 it hosted a large exhibition of Marc Chagall's work. '' The Madonna of Port Lligat'' by S ...
. It was the largest exhibition of her works to date and the first time a Taiwanese artist's works toured Japan in a major solo exhibition. A number of Chen's works are held in the
Taipei Fine Arts Museum The Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM; ) is a museum in Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. It is in the Taipei Expo Park. The museum first opened on August 8, 1983, at the former site of the United States Taiwan Defense Command. It was the first ...
's permanent collection.


See also

*
Taiwanese art The artistic heritage of Taiwan is extremely diverse with multiple major influences and periods. Traditionally most arts were practiced for religious or ceremonial purposes. Art was first formalized under the Japanese but did not flourish until th ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Jin 1907 births 1998 deaths Taiwanese Buddhists 20th-century Taiwanese painters Taiwanese people of Hoklo descent Taiwanese women painters Nihonga painters