Chen Cheng-Hsiung, with an international vision, has devoted himself to the creation and study of abstract painting for more than half a century. He also is a collector of textiles and other artifacts and a researcher of Taiwanese primitive art. Born in 1935 in Taipei City, Chen studied with the painters Li Shi-chiao and Chin Jun-Tso when he was young, and created early works situated between semi-representational and abstraction. In 1958, he began studying books about modern art, which served as his introduction to his lifelong exploration of abstract painting. Since the 1960s, Chen has been active in the local and international art worlds, exhibiting works in Taipei, Tokyo, Osaka, the United States and France. While exhibiting work in the 1980s, Chen became acquainted with the Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky, Dutch painter Karel Appel, American painter and printmaker Sam Francis, Chinese-American visual artist and poet Walasse Ting, French painter Olivier Debré and the French art critic Pierre Restany.
Chen Cheng-Hsiung—A Retrospective: 1953 – 2013 is presented in three sections: close to 80 carefully selected paintings completed between 1953 and 2013 which are exhibited in galleries on the museum’s second floor; documents including catalogs from his shows over the years, dozens of books by well regarded authors assessing Chen's work, and posters announcing his lectures; and a documentary film about Chen. The exhibition spans six decades, from Chen's early semi-representational works to his deeply emotive and exuberant forays into pure abstraction, which comprehensively present his oeuvre.
*image (left)
Chen Cheng-Hsiung
AUTUMN SONG, 1967
Oil on canvas, 73 x 91 cm
courtesy of the artist