Mr. Yang Cheng-yuan, born in 1947 in Hualian, showed a strong interest in painting in his youth. He was admitted to Taiwan National Normal University in 1967 and received academic education in art from many teachers. After graduation in Taiwan, Yang went to study in Japan, where he explored various art forms and built a solid foundation afterwards for his application of colors, composition and images. In 1981, Yang graduated from the Oil Painting Research Department of Osaka University of Arts in Japan. After coming back to Taiwan, he joined the Ten Youth Society, and continued to create, teach and devotedly contribute to the printmaking education.
Yang masters both oil painting and printmaking with plenty artworks in high quality. He also participated in various exhibitions and competitions and was awarded one prize after another. The awards includes: the Silver Award of Japan IMA International Modern Art Exhibition (1986), the Jury Award of Spain FERROL International Printmaking Exhibition (1987), the Committee Award by Council for Cultural Affairs of R.O.C. International Printmaking Biennial Exhibition (1989), the National Culture and Arts Foundation Award of R.O.C. International Printmaking Biennial Exhibition (1991), the Special Award of Nanking Three Edition Exhibition (1991), and the Zhongxing Medal of Taiwan Literature and Art Association (1998).
Yang’s works placed great emphasis on ideas and thinking. He said: “An artist shall create in the spirit of starting from his own cultural system.” Therefore, he step by step fragmented and reconstructed the memory of Taiwan’s culture. Yang showed his interests in various times and subjects by series of artworks. In early 1980s, Yang’s People series was full of symbolism, showing profound life meaning and oriental qualities. He produced Fossil and Space series in the mid 1980s, exploring time, space, civilizations and life. Taiwan Historical Buildings series was drawn in the late 1980s with an interest in the origin of Taiwan’s history. Yang did Architecture in Modern Times series in the early 1990s, reflecting from a cultural viewpoint on the activities and traces in the times of Japanese occupation in Taiwan. To demonstrate the social pulse of Chinese style buildings in Taiwan, Yang painted Chinese Pattern Architecture series in the late 1990s. In recent years, Yang painted Taiwan urban buildings of this generation, beating out the rhythm of Taiwan’s urban development in the series of Taiwan Metropolis Buildings.
This exhibition presents 78 pieces of Yang’s works, including 35 oil paintings, 35 prints and eight sketches. The diversity of Yang’s works evidently demonstrates his profound artistic capacity and his exploration in reality and history. I hope the viewers could appreciate the inner beauty and special approaches through his works.
Source and Photo courtesy of National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (國立臺灣美術館)
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