Wang Pan Youn Winter Grassland 45.5x38cm 2000 Oil on Canvas

Wu Hao’s painting appears to be constantly splendid scenes of peculiar elegance but also banal tawdry qualities. He would use bright primary colors to depict ordinary people and folk life scenarios, along with a lively cheerful aura. Whether it’s flowers, children or old houses, the memories always stay in the abundant, wonderful moments. Even for the clown, entertaining the crowd when he may be somewhat bitter, he would act a joyful look and display an expressive stretching body. His black lines swim through rich colors and abstract backgrounds like iron wires, making divisions and balancing at the same time, and they shape images so merry that they are breathtaking. And Wu does so by merging the multi-view techniques from Eastern scroll painting and one-point perspective from three-dimensional sketch of the West. He would crush the subjects flat in the same space, make the time and space suddenly still, and yet he would create a visual effect of multiple perspectives, making rhythmic dynamics with the viewers.

Wu Hao Horse Riding 65x80cm 2011 Oil on canvas

Wu Hao Clown 82x82cm 1983 Oil on canvas

And there is Ju Ming, whose Taichi Boxing transforms and transcends shapes unto the sublime, expressing the strengths and rhythms of all the motions in Taichi with his simplistic, minimalist shapes. Two men pull and push one another, their offense and defense conflated with one another. In their simple, allegedly artless look, they build enormous and powerful kinesis, by which they embody the spirit of Taichi in yin and yang making reinforcing one another. Such balance as well as combination of strength and gentleness is what makes Ju’s art entail constant flows of life within its stillness.

Ju Ming Taichi Boxing 78x21x40(H) cm(68x21x40H cm) 1990

Yet in Jang Tarng-Kuh it’s delicate realism, the lush, exuberant lotus pond is turned into a lively “theater of nature”, a stage of life. Layers upon layers of lotus leaves together with lotus flowers in blossom and in buds structure the depth of this stage, as the birds, dragonflies and all the little creatures traversing in between like characters accidentally onstage. They all contribute to this quiet, serene natural scene with subtle yet lavishplots. Jang nicely captures the moments of nuanced changes in nature with his layers of light, shadow, color and details; while appreciating the overall scenery, following Jang’s flow of plots, his viewers also get to discover all the moments in life.

Jang Tarng-Kuh Roadside Theater Flowers Bloom and Fall 162x162cm 2013-2014 Oil on canvas

Now we turn to Wu Tien-Chang, an iconic artist of his time, whose art bears the memories of an era. Revisiting and re-envisioning historical figures and social images, Wu situates his personal experiences in historical contexts and reconsiders historical development, social changes and collective memories. His thick and forceful touches are embedded with solid and compelling codes of the time.

Wu Tien-Chang Japan Colony Age 73x61cm 1991 Oil on canvas

Wu Tien-Chang Ancestor Series ~ Toward Taiwan across the Ocean 53x45.5cm 1991 Oil Painting

In contrast, Lu Hsien Ming of late would portray banyan tress with a surrealistic approach. He does so by removing all the concrete settings, and with this the entire focus is cast toward the segment of life like under a spotlight. And we see more than just the memory of and sentiments toward the banyan trees. Through Lu’s art, the banyan tree becomes a silent witness, overseeing the city, its change through time; with this, the tree also saves the memories of the land, of the people. Here, the traces of time and thriving life forces overlay one another, and all make the nature under Lu’s portrayal more than simply sketches; they are the gazes into time, the land, and collective memories.

Lu Hsien Ming Sunbound 80x60cm 2021 Oil on canvas

Lu Hsien Ming Blooming 80x61cm 2021 Oil on canvas

Then there is Huang Ming Chan. In his painting, it’s always breezes and paddy fields under the bright, shining sun. Carefully plowed and planted rice swaying in the vast land, under the wide sky, with the sunlight penetrating through the cracks blown open by the wind. The rice crop extending beyond the horizon speaks to us waves upon waves of life in the field. The time is stolen; the water buffalos in the lotus pond are ignorant, as are the flying insects and flowing dragonflies. And Huang makes us see all that with his sable brushes through the canvas like plows over the field; there is no specific time and space, and each inch of his frame is a far look of his memories, so serene and so beautiful. It’s sighs in the autumn but all hidden in every standing withered lotus. The world was once so alive and romantic, and Huang preserves all the wonderful imprintsin the long, long river we call time.

Huang Ming Chan Leisurely Floating 130x194cm 2004 Oil on canvas

Last but certainly not least, Tao Wen Yueh gives us a painting more than just a portrayal of shapes but a way to transform thinking. In his painting, Tao employs modern visual vocabularies and gradually transforms indescribable feelings and ideas into the lines, colors and symbols in his frame. And Tao does so by his particular texture and composition that he tells ancient yet new, refreshing legends, one after another.

Tao Wen Yueh World of Symbol 116.5x91cm 2020 Oil on canvas

There is no future without stories. The future of future may be unrealistic and inexplicable; when it can be mysterious, it may actually be right ahead of us, awaiting our exploration and uncovering something new with our curiosity. Artists accomplish a future with the past, and in that future are hidden codes of the universe and poems that touch our soul. No matter how time passes and how history flows, all the memories in life that we call the “present” will never be erased. The future of the past is currently ongoing, now.

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