Ahura

《林玉山作品捐贈特展》，國立台灣美術館，2019。

Curator / Hsueh Yen-Ling

1. Introduction 

A Lotus Pond (1930), a famous painting by Lin Yu-Shan (林玉山, 1907-2004), was designated as national treasure by Taiwan's Ministry of Culture in May 2015. Being the first masterpiece by a modern Taiwanese painter that won this laurel, it has graced the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts' (NTMoFA) superb collection. Reflecting a mesmerizing fusion of Taiwanese nativist flavor and the signature painting styles from the Orient and the Occident, Lin's A Lotus Pond is considered by many to be his magnum opus that exerts a far-reaching and enduring influence on the orientation of Taiwanese nativist painting style. Such designation marked the official recognition of Lin's artistic achievements and his commendable contributions to Taiwanese fine arts development. Not only Lin's artistic achievements but also his philosophical position and support for cultural causes are held in great reverence by the Taiwanese art circle. Lin had donated his works to the Taiwan Provincial Museum of Fine Arts (the predecessor of NTMoFA) several times when he was still alive. Following this practice, his family members have also donated Lin's works to NTMoFA in recent years, including ink wash paintings, Eastern gouache paintings, and over 2,500 pieces of sketch from nature drawn during the 1920s and 2000s that embodied Lin's lifelong dedication to his creative philosophy. Lin's relatives and friends followed suit, making a donation of Lin's works that lie in their private collections for years altogether to NTMoFA. As a token of our gratitude at the generous donations we received over the years as well as our recognition of Lin's marvelous accomplishment in the field of painting, we specifically channel these donations to stage this grand exhibition where Lin's brilliant works are made public as a paragon of art.

The concept of "sketching from nature" had been the fountainhead of Lin's creative practice. and conviction, which found expression not only in his paintings but also in his writings. Aside from those lost or destroyed in the pre-war era, a total of more than 2,500 pieces of sketch from nature that Lin drew during his lifetime have been preserved to date. One can speculate that he usually brought sketching paraphernalia with him and made sketches from nature if situation or time allowed. According to Lin, "sketching from nature is fundamental for learning painting. It's little more than a representation of nature no matter how much verisimilitude one's painting has. We must master the aesthetic beauty of painting to make up for this deficiency of nature." This statement indicated that "sketching from nature" was of special significance to Lin. His practice in this aspect spanned the period from his tender age to his twilight years. As far as Lin was concerned, "sketching from nature" was not only about emulating but also complementing nature. In other words, nature was the very object he documented, extracted, organized, and created through observation and sketching. Lin also argued that "sketching from nature is not only indispensable but also the basics for painting. Nonetheless, the purpose of sketching from nature is not so much to depict the world in a highly realistic fashion as to capture its ecology, vitality, and unique charm." He accentuated that sketching from nature is aimed at reflecting the grace and vigor of real scenes and objects rather than merely representing them in an objective and realistic way. "The painter encounters his object when drawing a sketch from nature. In the very beginning, there is no such thing as fixed style and stroke for depicting the object. The painter can simply follow his heart and adopt his preferred ones. Then, gaining experience through continual practice, the painter can either determine which technique to be applicable for which object, or invent new ways of expression. Fresh inspirations and novel techniques tend to emerge from perseverant practice and study of sketching from nature," Lin further expounded on how to show originality in delineating the ecology, vitality, and genuine spirit of the depicted objects. "Sketching from nature" not only served as the theme tune of Lin's glittering career as a painter, but also evolved with the different phases of his oeuvre. In this essay, I carefully analyzed these donated paintings and sketches from nature, thereby investigating the way that Lin put his painting theory into practice and the significance of "sketching from nature" that formed the solid basis for his multi-subject oeuvre. 

2. Sketching from Nature as a Source of Inspiration and Influence 

Lin's long and prolific career as a painter not only mirrored the political and cultural changes in Taiwan, but also underwent a notable conversion from folk painting and the Four Noble Ones esteemed in the Han culture into nihonga (日本畫, Japanese painting), an enthralling mélange of Western techniques and sketch from nature. Lin was born in 1907, coming of age on Chiayi's Aesthetic Street (originally Rice Street). Known for its highly artistic and cultural atmosphere during the Japanese colonial period, this street was a hub of mounting studios (including the Feng-Ya Xuan 風雅軒 run by Lin's father) as well as the dwellings of many eminent scholars and painters. At that time, artists specializing in deity sculpture and painting tended to work at these mounting studios, from whom Lin learned the depiction of deities in folk beliefs and the basics of ink wash painting at his tender age. Apart from having access to the works by Lin Jue (林覺) and Lin Chao-Ying (林朝英), he also imitated Hokkien painter Lee Can (李燦)'s paintings of dragon and tiger. Japanese painter Isaka Sikou (伊坂旭江) provided Lin with advice and mentorship on literati painting of the Four Noble Ones when Lin was 15 years old. Although all that Lin learned before his adulthood belonged to traditional painting, it induced him to cogitate on the relations between painting and natural reality, which had remarkable influence on his subsequent study and creation of modern painting as well as his incorporation of Chinese ink wash painting techniques and subjects into his oeuvre. 

The year of 1926 marked the beginning of Lin's systematic training in modern painting, signaled by his enrollment at the Kawabata Painting School (川端畫學校) founded in 1909 on the basis of Tenshinsha (天真社), a private art school owned by Kawabata Gyokusho (川端玉章, 1842-1913). The Kawabata Painting School was dedicated to cultivating talents of Japanese painting, and established the yoga (occidental painting) division in 1913. It was shortly renamed the Kawabata Painting Institute, but soon resumed its original one. Many Japanese artists used to learn the basics of fine arts at the Kawabata Painting School, and it was treated as a springboard by many of those who plan to be enrolled at the Tokyo Fine Arts School (東京美術學校). The Kawabata Painting School was an official affiliation whose scale and faculty were both larger than those of the other private fine arts or painting schools. Besides, its faculty was headlined by professors at the Tokyo Fine Arts School and heavyweights in the driving seat of official exhibitions, e.g. Yuki Somei (結城素明, 1875-1957) and Fujishima Takeji (藤島武二, 1867-1943), which was why it could establish an overwhelming presence in the Japanese art circle from the late Meiji era to the Shōwa period. Moreover, garnering several prestigious awards from the 1st (1877) and 2nd (1881) National Industrial Exposition as well as the 1st (1882) and 2nd (1884) Competitive Show for the Promotion of National Painting, Kawabata stood out as a high-profile artist in the Japanese art scene, and was on the jury for the promotion of tōyōga (東洋畫, oriental painting) in 1886. He became a"Maruyama (圓山派)" professor with the establishment of the Tokyo Fine Arts School in 1889. As a highly active artist, Kawabata was also deemed one of the iconic figures who helped the Kyoto-based Maruyama-Shijō school (圓山四條派) find a foothold in the Tokyo painting circle. He set great store by cognizing realism and cultivating modernist perspective of sketching from nature, so that he could actively link himself up with the zeitgeist and the new trend towards realistic expression of Western modern painting in the Meiji era. Kawabata had disciples around the country, foremost Tanaka Raisho (田中賴璋, 1868-1940), Yuki Somei, and Yamada Keichiu (山田敬中, 1868-1934). Led by Kawabata and his disciples, the Kawabata Painting School and the Tokyo Fine Arts School enshrined the Maruyama-Shijo school's pedagogy, asking their students to derive inspirations from nature and quotidian existence, and espousing the philosophy of representing real scenes with objective, realistic techniques. We can infer that this characteristic was inherited from Maruyama Ōkyo (圓山應舉, 1733-1795), the founder of the Maruyama school, and his ideology of sketching from nature. 

Influenced by Taiwanese painter Tan Ting-Pho (陳澄波), Lin chose to start his study at the Kawabata Painting School from oriental painting, regarding it as a means to refine his drawing skill. Nevertheless, Lin transferred to the nihonga division three months after his enrollment. The division's curriculum focused on imitation, sketching from nature, and production, with several optional courses. Taking a stroll down memory lane, Lin described his school days between 1926 and 1929 that the training unfolded along the Shijo school as the axis, underscored sketching from nature, and paid particular attention to the use of ink and brushstroke. The training was offered in a step-by- step manner, starting from the Four Noble Ones (四君子), then the more complicated landscapes as well as flora and fauna, and finally sketching from life and nature for the students' mutual emulation. In the Japanese painting circle, the Kawabata Painting School was known for its teaching of drawing and sketching from nature, from which Lin got rigorous training that greatly facilitated his subsequent learning. Among the donated works in this exhibition there are three Eastern gouache paintings--Pine Tree and Cranes, Cherry Blossom and Quails, and Plum, Bamboo, and Mandarin Ducks--created in 1926 with commonly seen flower- and-bird compositions and somewhat clumsy brushstrokes, which indicated that they were Lin's school studies. Nonetheless, the depiction and coloring of the Mandarin ducks and quails in these paintings revealed Lin's potential of lending expressive power to his sketches from nature through careful observation. Comparing Lin's rough sketches drawn at the Kawabata Painting School with Kawabata's work Red-crowned Cranes and Bamboos (Chofu Mouri Residence) and Lin's sketchbooks in the 1920s that contained flora and fauna, scenery, and even sketches from cranes and lions at the zoo, we may notice that Lin followed the teaching of the Kawabata Painting School, that is, starting from imitation, and then mastering the subjects via comprehensive studies and diligent practice of sketching from nature. Lin's sketchbooks in the 1920s and 1930s further showed that he had been more assiduous in sketching from eagles, sparrows, wild ducks, flowers, and plants. His scrupulousness also found expression. in "Confederate Roses, Mandarin Ducks" and "Two Pheasant and Camellia ;" to wit, the drafts of his Season series (1937) consisting of Peonies and Swinhoe's Pheasant, Hydrangeas and Egrets, Hibiscus and Mandarin Ducks, and Camellia and Pheasants. Flower-and-bird paintings again notwithstanding, this series portrayed its objects in a more realistic fashion. Lin employed more skillful and exquisite brushstrokes to create more compact and vivid compositions, rendering the flowers and birds more lifelike in these paintings. On a more specific basis, this series hid the contour lines and highlighted the color variations, displaying the iridescent natural scenery with realistic techniques as well as fine, meticulous and elegant coloring, whilst exhibiting the bio-modalities in the four seasons. The evolution of Lin's early painting style from reservation to consummation was made clear by such a comparison.