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It has now been fourteen years since Mr. Chiang Chao-shen,
former Deputy Director at the National Palace Museum and
born in 1925, suddenly passed away while presenting a
lecture at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang
on May 12, 1996. Chiang was not only renowned both
domestically and internationally as a historian of
Chinese art, he was also held in exceptionally high
regard for his outstanding achievements in painting,
calligraphy, and seal carving.
After retiring from the National Palace Museum in
September of 1991, he went to live at his "Qishe Garden"
in Puli, Nantou County. Diligent in his art, he held
major exhibitions of painting and calligraphy at such
venues as the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the National Art
Museum of China in Beijing, and the Huangshan Municipal
Museum in Anhui Province. And after his passing, Chiang
Chao-shen's disciples gathered works of his to hold a
memorial exhibition that went on to receive considerable
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On June 5, 2009, Chiang Chao-shen's widow, Ms. Chang Kuei-na, generously donated to the National Palace
Museum 110 of his works. These fitting additions to the
collection include fifty paintings, ten works of
calligraphy, and fifty seals by Chiang Chao-shen. To
express heartfelt gratitude for and to commemorate her
extraordinary act of kindness, the National Palace
Museum is holding this special exhibition of donated
Chiang Chao-shen works from April to June of 2010.
Nearly all of the donated painting and calligraphy here
comes from the stylistically mature phase of Chiang
Chao-shen's career as an artist. The works include nine
from 1993, 28 from 1994, 21 from 1995, and one each from
1990 and 1996. The Museum's painting and calligraphy
galleries 210 and 212 have been chosen for this
exhibition, the former presenting Chiang's paintings,
seals, and seal carvings, while the latter displaying
his calligraphy. As for the paintings, since most come
from his later years, they have not been arranged here
chronologically. Rather, to clarify the features of his
late style, they are divided into five sections: "Brush
and Ink," "The Composition," "The Beauty of the
Seasons," "The Picturesque Landscape," and "Poetic
Musings of Old." The calligraphy has been organized in a
section entitled "Connecting Past and Present,"
revealing his practice of studying from antiquity to
create new innovations as well as the course of
stylistic change. Chiang's seals are presented in the
section "Impressions from the Heart," displaying his
actual seals, impressions in red from the seal faces,
and ink rubbings of the engraved sides. As such, they
allow audiences to appreciate Chiang Chao-shen's
consummate choice of materials, the contents of his
texts, the arrangement of the seal faces, and the
wonders of his carving techniques.
Considering the richness in quantity of this exhibition,
some of the works are being rotated in the middle of
May. A lecture event is also being held to introduce and
remember the art of Chiang Chao-shen. In addition to
actual display objects, the interactive multimedia area
in Gallery 210 includes a simulated literati setting the
likes of which was so admired by Chiang Chao-shen
throughout his life. Finally, a documentary is also
being screened in the hopes of completing this concrete
glimpse at the art and person behind the artwork of
Chiang Chao-shen.
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