Mr. Fu Jian-fu is one of the most representative painters in Taiwan in the past 50 years. Prior to his arrival to Taiwan, he studied traditional calligraphy, paintings, and poetry from the Xiling Calligraphy and Painting Society. After he arrived Taiwan, he began to paint its precious landscapes and created unique styles and techniques such as dianzi (dot blotting), ranzi (dye blotting), and liexia (rift creation), earning his paintings the name of "Fu's Landscapes." Fu's painting and calligraphy achievements played a key role in modern painting history and facilitated Taiwan's art development. From 2010 to 2012, Fu's family kindly donated hundreds of Fu Jia-fu-related artifacts (e.g., 63 calligraphic works, 71 paintings, and 100 seals) to the National Palace Museum. Many of these artifacts had been kept by Fu after being shown at calligraphy and painting exhibitions because of their uniqueness and preciousness, all of which are shown in this special exhibition catalogue.
Fu retired from the military at the age of 50 and later devoted himself to art creation. By utilizing the knowledge he had learnt from his father and teachers and skills he had honed over the years, he created the lianmiancao (continuous, flowing line) script. In addition, he traveled all around Taiwan and used traditional calligraphy paintings to capture mountain and sea views. He invented the liexiacun method to effectively portray the ruggedness and precipitousness of cross-island highways, and created the misty, dimly discernible ranzi method to effectually illustrate the vastness of the clouds of the Alishan. These methods became unique and exclusive painting methods used to depict Taiwan's landscapes. To reproduce the valley-like depths and mountain-like waves of the Taiwan Strait (which he saw during his trip to Taiwan), he utilized the dianzi method, in which the splashing of the waves was skillfully rendered. The moment where the waves quickly discharged and the sound that they created were masterfully preserved on paper. The brushstrokes were smooth, free, and penetrating, making the paintings magnificent and lifelike.
Fu, honorably called the "spokesperson of Taiwan's landscapes" and the "pioneer of Taiwan's ink wash painting," relocated from China to Taiwan in 1949 in response to changing times. His calligraphy painting skills, which he learned from his father, teachers, and friends in the art circle, enabled him to revolutionize Taiwan's landscape paintings and break the traditions of Chinese landscape paintings. In addition, his long-term observations of local sceneries and efforts to experiment, challenge, and innovate created new and unique methods of painting Taiwan's landscapes, in which the said methods served as a crucial medium in inhering the past and ushering in the future. By studying Fu's landscape paintings, people relearn about Taiwan's mountains and waters and feel a strong sense of pride in the place where they are born and grow up in.