Artists - TAIWAN

　　In the first summer of the twentieth century, Kuo Po-chuan was born at a rope-making family on Da-zong St. in Tainan. His father died when he was two. The hardship caused by the loss of a parent made fortitude and toughness his character. Maybe for Kuo Po-chuan to achieve his outstanding art, God put in his hand a script of wandering. He left home for the north of Taiwan to study at Chinese Teacher's College when he was sixteen. After he graduated, he went home teaching and getting married by the arrangement of his grandfather. However, this kind of traditional marriage cannot settle Kuo Po-chuan's untamed nature. Instead, he was stimulated to exile himself.

　　In 1926, Kuo Po-chuan went to Japan to study painting by himself. Two years later, he was admitted to Tokyo Academy of Fine Arts. Then twenty-seven years old, Kuo Po-chuan knew very well his own interest and goal. All the loneliness and privation in life were melted under his enthusiastic and skilled brushwork. Being successively selected for Taiten Exhibitions, he was even encouraged to go firmly on his road of art. In 1937, He chose to go to the northeast China, to continue his lonely journey.

A year after, he for the time being had his sojourn from his wandering steps on the teaching positions at National Peking Normal University and National Peking Art School. At that time, all the people of the art circle in Peking knew about the great event of Kuo Po-chuan's exhibition every year at Lai-Jin-Yu-Xuan on Dragon Boat Festival, where all the paintings were sold out.

　　Getting acquainted with Ryuzaburo Umehara is probably a destined turn in Kuo Po-chuan's life. Ryuzaburo's ungoverned personality, rebellious behavior, and original temperament matched with the heroic ideas of Kuo Po-chuan. Furthermore, the Chinese fashion concentrated in Peking brought new phenomena to their art. The red and green architecture of the palace, the quiet color and translucent texture special to blue and white china, and even the coloring of the paint to Chinese brush painting paper inspired Kuo Po-chuan's rich creativity. He successively applied Western oil paint to Chinese paper to present an Oriental quality and achieved a special painting language that is uniquely his.

　　In 1948, after twenty-two years away from home, Kuo Po-chuan, who had experienced a life-and-death struggle with Kala-azar, finally missed home. He came back Taiwan with his family during a time of war. By chance, he received a position in the Department of Architecture at Tainan Technical College (now National Cheng-Kung University) to teach sketching for another twenty-two years. During this period, Kuo Po-chuan not only helped the development of art in the south of Taiwan but also began his own "Sunshine South" period.

　　The sunshine and soil of Tainan endowed Kuo Po-chuan's paintings with new life force and aspects. He passionately employed soft red and brisk brushwork to paint the scenery of Taiwan with fresh hues. In the sunny ancient city, Tainan, he explored the red brick walls and green shades at the Confucian Temple, coconut and Flame of the Forest trees at Chih-kan Lou; on Yang Ming Shan, he explored the warm and glamorous spring; on Mt. Ali, he explored loving and tender cherry blossoms. He spread turpentine oil blended paint on Chinese paper quickly and lively. With just one stroke, layers of colors vividly represent the special qualities of the objects, the arrangement of the space, and the heat of the sun in a second, highlighting Kuo Po-chuan's vigor and matured painting skill.

　　Fruit and fish were Kuo Po-chuan's favorites. With bright color, they look so real in his paintings. A lot of vermilion red is applied here, a red that is like the red cake of Taiwanese folk customs. The pottery under his brush has the color that is so blue to be almost close to the color of purple but not without the solemnity of blue and white porcelain luster. And his nudes fully grasp the features of Oriental female bodies with exaggeration and contortion, pink and soft complexion, and unique style that shows the artist's romantic thought.

　　Studying Kuo Po-chuan's paintings not only allows us to know the dramatic life of the artist but also reveals to us a page of history and all its happening in the twentieth century. It has been a hundred years. One hundred years ago, this kid from Tainan fulfilled his life step by step. Again and again, he confronted new challenges and pictured a brilliant icon that is totally his. One hundred years later, he holds a significant position in the art history of Taiwan. His folks in Tainan will be so proud of him and, of course, his paintings.

1901	Born in Tainan City.
1910	Entered Tainan's No.2 Pubic School.
1915	Tested in Taipei Language School's Teachers Department.
1921	Graduated from Taipei Language School and returned to Tainan's No.2 Public School as a teacher.
1926	Stepped down as a teacher and traveled to Japan to study. Entered a private studio to learn painting.
1927	Haiao Wang Temple from a Distance was chosen for the First Taiwan Art Exhibit.
1928	Tested in Tokyo Fine Art Academy's Western Painting Department ; Became a member of the Red Island Club.
1929	Study in Tokyo Fine Arts School. Guan Di Temple from a Distance was chosen for the 3rd Taiwan Art Exhibit.
1930	Hang Zhou view from a Distance was chosen for the 4th Taiwan Art Exhibit.
1933	Graduated from Tokyo Fine Arts School.
1937	Went to China. First traveled and sketched the Northeast. Moved to Beijing.
1938	Taught at Beijing Art School and in Beijing Normal College's Craftsmanship Department.
1939	Held his first individual exhibit at Beijing's Sun Yat-Sen Park Studio. Sketched together with Umehara when he came to Beijing.
1940	Married Chu Wan-Hua.
1941	Held an exhibit at the new Fine Arts Museum in Beijing ones a year every year hereafter.
1942	Taught at Capital Art School.
1943	First attempt at painting oil on paper.
1945	Held individual exhibition at Shanghai's International Hotel. At the end of World War Two, became a professor at National Beijing Normal University.
1947	Stepped down from teaching because he contracted black fever.Entered Beijing's Chungho Hospital to treat his ailment.
1948	In September, released from the hospital and returned to Taiwan to Recuperate. Held his First individual exhibit at the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial. Circled the island with friends and sketched.
1949	Returned to Tainan where he set up permanent residence. Held an individual exhibit at Tainan's city council.
1950	Took a position in Tainan Provincial Engineering Institute's Architecture Department.
1952	14. June, Founded the Tainan Art Research Committee (TARC) which he then chaired for twenty years. In February, held first TARC exhibition at Tainan's Erhsin Ceremonial Hall. In March, TARC created the Art Research Institute located on Tainan's An P'ing Road for the practical advancement of the fine arts.
1954	Served as a judge for the National Teachers Art Exhibition.
1955	Served as a judge for the Tenth Provincial Art Exhibition.
1958	TRAC, the Tainan Rotary Club, and the Tanan Teacher's Association sponsored his second individual exhibition since returning to Taiwan.
1960	National History Museum held a Sixty Year (Thirty Years Painting) retrospective ExhibitWhich showed 100 works.
1962	Held Tenth TARC Exhibition, This was the first time it toured the island.
1965	On Umehara Ryuzaburo's recommendation, was offered a teaching position at Tokyo Art College, but because of arthritis, could not accept.
1966	Received Chinese Art Students' Association Gold Medal and shown in their exhibition.
1970	Retired from Cheng Kung University TARC exhibition toured Taitung.
1972	Served as a judge for the Sixth National Art Exhibition.
1974	January 23, died at the age of 74.
1980	The posthumous exhibitions of Kuo Po-chuan were held in Taipei and Tainan. Po-chuan and I was published by Chu Wan-hua.
1997	His family donated forty of his paintings to Taipei Fine Art Museum.
1998	Taipei Fine Art Museum hosted the exhibition "Ryuzaburo Umehara and Kuo Po-chuan. His family donated thirty-one of his paintings to National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art in Taichung. A Special exhibition, "Kuo Po-chuan - Early Taiwan on Chinese Paper," was held at Metaphysical Art Gallery in Taipei.
2002	The exhibition, "The centenary of Kuo Po-chuan - The South, the Sunshine, and Chih-kan Lou," was held at Metaphysical Art Gallery in Taipei. The exhibition, "The South, the Sunshine, and Chih-kan Lou -- Kuo Po-chuan's Portrait of Tainan" was held at the Art Center of National Cheng-Kung University in Tainan.