Enduring Imprints: Traces of Life and Art – Shiy De-Jinn's Early Years, 1943–1966

Date | 2025. 8. 23 — 2025. 12. 07

Time | Tue.-Fri. 09:00～17:00, Sat.-Sun. 09:00～18:00

Location | NTMoFA Gallery 101

Organizer | National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

Co-organizer | Shiy De Jinn Foundation

Curators |  Yang Yung-Yuan

Exhibition Statement｜

In 1943, Shiy De-Jinn enrolled at the National Academy of Art in Hangzhou (formerly the National Hangzhou Academy of Art) and graduated in 1948. Later that summer in August, he left Hangzhou via Shanghai and for Taiwan alone, embarking on a decade-long journey of displacement. Despite a life of uncertainty, he pressed forward with unwavering resolve on his artistic path. The search for balance between unease and determination stemmed in part from a deep nostalgia for his days at the academy and his ongoing reflection on the teachings of his mentor Lin Feng-Mien. At the same time, it reflected his lifelong pursuit of Chinese culture and traditional folk aesthetics, something he held close to his heart.

In his early years in Taiwan, Shiy De-Jinn worked as an art teacher at Chiayi Senior High School. In his spare time, he explored the outskirts of Chiayi and the cities and towns of southern Taiwan. The artist not only enjoyed the vivid light and color unique to the region, but also developed a dexterous habit of a ‘plein-air’ painting skill, i.e. finishing a painting entirely in the open air and finding sketching subjects in nature. He also continued to refine the figure painting techniques he had acquired at the National Academy of Art (Hangzhou), maintaining a sensitivity to portraiture - skills he would later fully express in Taipei.

In early 1952, Shiy De-Jinn left Chiayi Senior High School and moved north to Taipei. He made a living through doing illustration and commercial art, yet the call to return to pure artistic creation from his inner desire remained constant. He explored the city’s outskirts in search of subjects for his landscapes, ventured into street life to capture the pulse of local culture, and visited temples to learn about folk beliefs and religious rituals. Shiy De-Jinn also continued his interest in figure and portrait painting, which had begun in Chiayi. Through art books, he studied the styles of early 20th-century artists such as Paul Cézanne, Georges Rouault, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. Building on these influences, he developed a painterly language grounded in texture and materiality, which came to define his highly recognizable style.

From 1955 to the early 1960s, Shiy De-Jinn’s watercolor landscapes and oil portraits sold extremely well, enabling him to make a living as a professional artist. By the late 1950s, however, the emergence of modern art in Taiwan compelled him to consider how he might respond to changing trends in style and subject matter. After his 1957 work Sitting Idle was exhibited in the National Art Exhibition, Shiy De-Jinn wrote, “This piece is rather special. It could be seen as the last appearance of figurative landscape in my oil paintings. From then on, I moved toward abstraction and fantasy.” Having first gained recognition in Taipei for his portraiture among Western diplomats and their families, this stylistic shift toward abstraction helped open the door to new opportunities, including an invitation from the U.S. State Department in 1962 to explore modern art in America, which later extended to Europe at his own expense, where he spent three years living in Paris.

In 1962, before departing for the United States, Shiy De-Jinn responded to the host organization’s inquiry that his top priority was to see the work of abstract artist Franz Kline, as well as to visit galleries and museums in Washington, New York, and San Francisco. During his time in the U.S., in addition to his usual watercolor sketching, he also produced a series of abstract paintings. While in the U.S., Shiy De-Jinn realized that Abstract Expressionism had already been overtaken by Pop Art and other emerging movements. Responding to these shifts, he began experimenting with Pop Art during his time in America, a practice he continued after arriving in France in 1963. There, he incorporated Chinese folk religious symbols and imagery drawn from vernacular art into his Pop-inspired works. The folk elements in Shiy De-Jinn’s Pop creations may be seen as “symbolized” forms of everyday life. This gives his art a highly distinctive character.

Shiy De-Jinn continued to explore abstraction and Pop-inspired styles even in the first few years after returning from Europe. However, the aesthetic spirit of Chinese culture, along with Taiwan’s local subjects, such as old architecture and ordinary people, came to define his later work. This revealed a new dimension of Shiy De-Jinn’s creative self.