East and West in the Art of Hsiao Chin and Chuang Che

Abstract

The present work aims to analyze the commonalities and the differences in the art of Hsiao Chin (1935-) and Chuang Che (1934-). Hsiao and Chuang were both born in Mainland China and they both fled to Taiwan in 1949, later becoming fundamental protagonists of the two associations leading the modernist art movement on the island in the 1960s. They left Taiwan in 1956 and 1973 respectively for the purpose of pursuing their artistic careers abroad, where they resided for more than four decades. In their art, they aim at a synthesis of “East” and “West” through the visual language of abstraction. The thesis analyzes the different theoretical standpoints on which the two artists ground their artistic production, probing how these standpoints are reflected in their paintings. Furthermore, starting from the two artists’ shared ambition to modernize Chinese art, it explores how their different understanding of the notion of “East” took shape in their work, and proceeds to investigate why, according to said understanding, they referred to certain Western models. After examining the origins of the Eastern Painting Association and the Fifth Moon Group in Taiwan, the work follows Hsiao Chin and Chuang Che in their artistic development in Italy and the USA respectively, and reconstructs how the embryonic propositions of their first Taiwan years developed when they reached the "West”, and how they have been able to integrate the "West” into their determination to modernize Chinese art.