ARTISTS
Ying Chou
A groundbreaking printmaker in Taiwanese art history, Ying Chou (1922-2011) was also a prominent educator in the development of contemporary art in Taiwan. Chou relocated to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War, giving instructions in National Taipei Normal College for forty years and devoting his whole life to Taiwanese fine art education. He made his efforts in fostering numerous elites such as Hsiao Chin, the brothers of Ho Kung-shang, Ho Chau-chu and Ho Zheng-guang, Lee, Shi-chi and Ni Chao-lung, etc. with the creative fields including print, watercolor, oil painting and sketch. Chou’s art practice in modern print reflected the oppressed liberty of creative environment in a time of political restriction, the embodied inner struggles are expressed through modern abstract paintings.
Chou’s early woodblock prints expressed mostly in realism, recording the scenery of rural life and domestic figures, the flowing line construction in black and white interweaving realistic tones involving Taiwanese countryside. He had published with other artists such as Chen Chi-mao and Chu Hsiao-chiu on newspapers some print artworks with densely political propaganda, for instance, A Home Letter; in addition to woodblock print, Ying Chou also specialized in various print techniques including paper print, lithographic, sugar cane print and etching print. The renowned Ode to Stone series marks the summit of his creative achievement, the unique technique of template rubbing involving transformation from carving to rubbing exquisitely rendered delicate and exquisite details in the texture of stone, revealing the passion evocative of ancient Chinese literati obsessively depicting landscape and stone. With brimming warmness of life, Ode to Stone is a pivotal work that blends the essence from Chinese and Western paintings which received special distinction of Silver CCA Award from International Biennial Print Exhibition ROC respectively in 1983 and 1987.
Ode to Wood, the exceptionally large mixed-media series were created when Ying Chou was already 75 years old, based on the experimental spirit in creative commitment, he explored again the original virtue in the created natural life that rooted and originated from nature, the pieces return to inherent qualities of the logs, creating a series of solid works integrating spirituality with humanity.
Since 1957, Ying Chou had been continuously participating major domestic and international exhibitions, and a great deal of Chou Ying retrospective exhibitions have been successively organized by National Museum of History, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts and National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts during 2013 to 2016, including “Over the mountain: a Retrospective of CHOU YING”, “Chou Ying: an ode to printmaking: a Retrospective”, and “Chou Ying’s Retrospective: Legend from Stone and Wood”, all extensively received enthusiastic response. His works have been collected by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, National Museum of History, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea, The College of Fine Art at Fujian Normal University in Fuzhou, China.
Chou’s early woodblock prints expressed mostly in realism, recording the scenery of rural life and domestic figures, the flowing line construction in black and white interweaving realistic tones involving Taiwanese countryside. He had published with other artists such as Chen Chi-mao and Chu Hsiao-chiu on newspapers some print artworks with densely political propaganda, for instance, A Home Letter; in addition to woodblock print, Ying Chou also specialized in various print techniques including paper print, lithographic, sugar cane print and etching print. The renowned Ode to Stone series marks the summit of his creative achievement, the unique technique of template rubbing involving transformation from carving to rubbing exquisitely rendered delicate and exquisite details in the texture of stone, revealing the passion evocative of ancient Chinese literati obsessively depicting landscape and stone. With brimming warmness of life, Ode to Stone is a pivotal work that blends the essence from Chinese and Western paintings which received special distinction of Silver CCA Award from International Biennial Print Exhibition ROC respectively in 1983 and 1987.
Ode to Wood, the exceptionally large mixed-media series were created when Ying Chou was already 75 years old, based on the experimental spirit in creative commitment, he explored again the original virtue in the created natural life that rooted and originated from nature, the pieces return to inherent qualities of the logs, creating a series of solid works integrating spirituality with humanity.
Since 1957, Ying Chou had been continuously participating major domestic and international exhibitions, and a great deal of Chou Ying retrospective exhibitions have been successively organized by National Museum of History, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts and National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts during 2013 to 2016, including “Over the mountain: a Retrospective of CHOU YING”, “Chou Ying: an ode to printmaking: a Retrospective”, and “Chou Ying’s Retrospective: Legend from Stone and Wood”, all extensively received enthusiastic response. His works have been collected by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, National Museum of History, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea, The College of Fine Art at Fujian Normal University in Fuzhou, China.
