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Lot Essay
In 1943, the National College of Art (NCA) founded by Lin Fengmian relocated to Chongqing to avoid the chaos of the wartime period. This relocation gave the artist Shiy De-Jinn the opportunity to study art, and in 1945, he entered Lin Fengmian's class to study Western painting. Lin's passion toward Western modernism, including especially Cubism, Fauvism and abstract art inspired his NCA students to develop their own individualistic styles rather than blindly following old academic. Studying in the NCA, Shiy was able to learn about Western masters Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso, and gradually developed a strong grasp of Western aesthetics. After the end of the war in 1946, Shiy followed the NCA relocation to Hangzhou, to pursue his studies.
In 1948, Shiy followed the Chinese Youth Expeditionary Force Division 207 to Tainan, Taiwan, and then took up the job as an art teacher in Chiayi High school; in 1952, Shiy turned to a new page of life in Taipei, Taiwan. The artist lived in Chiayi for three years, during which time the proximity to local customs and the natural scenery provided considerable inspiration to his work. With relatively better access to information in Taipei, Shiy's understanding towards the Western art developed even further. During the ten years he spent in Taipei, Shiy incorporated many Western art styles, such as Fauvism and Impressionism, into his own, eventually finding his own artistic language to express his feelings and spirit. Farming Geese (Lot 2167) painted in 1956 manifested the liveliness and simplicity of Taiwanese villages. Farming Geese, a representative theme of the rural Taiwanese life, successfully brought Shiy De-jinn's art onto the international stage: Framing Geese and The Goose Seller (Fig 1), also painted in 1956, both participated in the 4th Sao Paulo Art Biennial in Brazil. "The Goose Raiser" exhibits Shiy's study of Fauvism, rather than attempting to reproduce the scene's original colour, the artist boldly applied a variety of colours, and subjectively picked the cheerful orange colour to represent the atmosphere and mood. Deliberately flattening his compoisition, the artist applied films of colour in overlapping and intertwining layers, resulting in a gradient tonal effect, which resembles the colour effect in water-and-ink painting; with the interaction between colours and the intensive application of complementary colours, a rhythm is created for the audience's eyes. Lin Fengmian's "ink on colour, colour on ink" proposed to reform traditional water-and-ink painting, is furthered by Shiy's overlapping of colours and his technique of highlighting the background colour. The bold black contour lines constitute the outline of the scenery, which then joins to form geometrical colour plates. The artist abandoned the traditional practice of reproducing a three-dimensional effect by perspective technique, instead he used different colours to represent the inside and outside of an entity, so as to manifest the aesthetics of plane design. The body of the goose is constituted by simple lines, showing Shiy's attempt to strike a balance between concrete and abstract representation.
Shiy De-Jinn has long been devoting his efforts to gain experience with different painting tools of water painting, oil painting, water-and-ink painting and sketching. Shiy began to innovate within water-and-ink since 1970s, he re-examined traditional themes such as landscape and flowers with modern mindset and live experience. In Ducks under Taro Leaves (Lot 2168), the artist reassigned a new look for the flower and birds. Shiy grasped the clear relation between different layers of the scene, and created variation of light and shadow with translucent water and ink. By practicing the Han style calligraphy since the end of the 60s, Shiy developed the skill of drawing simple but powerful lines. The clean and clear lines in Ducks under Taro Leaves highlighted the three-dimensional effect of the leave blades. With exquisite water-and-ink painting technique, Shiy exhibits the Eastern appeal and the beauty of ink in his depiction of the ducks' body and expression.
"If practice well, one can obtain superb capability like Mr. Lin Fengmian does, and one can control whatever lines and shape he would like to paint," said Shiy De-Jinn when he entered NCA. Shiy has never rested his pursuit in the control of lines and accurate modeling. Young Man with a Suitcase (Lot 2169) is drawn with charcoal pencil alone, the boy waiting with his leather suitcase is made vividly alive on paper, both in terms of his physical appeal and inner spirit, simply by the intertwining lines and shadow, manifesting the artist's advanced and well-grounded skills.
In 1948, Shiy followed the Chinese Youth Expeditionary Force Division 207 to Tainan, Taiwan, and then took up the job as an art teacher in Chiayi High school; in 1952, Shiy turned to a new page of life in Taipei, Taiwan. The artist lived in Chiayi for three years, during which time the proximity to local customs and the natural scenery provided considerable inspiration to his work. With relatively better access to information in Taipei, Shiy's understanding towards the Western art developed even further. During the ten years he spent in Taipei, Shiy incorporated many Western art styles, such as Fauvism and Impressionism, into his own, eventually finding his own artistic language to express his feelings and spirit. Farming Geese (Lot 2167) painted in 1956 manifested the liveliness and simplicity of Taiwanese villages. Farming Geese, a representative theme of the rural Taiwanese life, successfully brought Shiy De-jinn's art onto the international stage: Framing Geese and The Goose Seller (Fig 1), also painted in 1956, both participated in the 4th Sao Paulo Art Biennial in Brazil. "The Goose Raiser" exhibits Shiy's study of Fauvism, rather than attempting to reproduce the scene's original colour, the artist boldly applied a variety of colours, and subjectively picked the cheerful orange colour to represent the atmosphere and mood. Deliberately flattening his compoisition, the artist applied films of colour in overlapping and intertwining layers, resulting in a gradient tonal effect, which resembles the colour effect in water-and-ink painting; with the interaction between colours and the intensive application of complementary colours, a rhythm is created for the audience's eyes. Lin Fengmian's "ink on colour, colour on ink" proposed to reform traditional water-and-ink painting, is furthered by Shiy's overlapping of colours and his technique of highlighting the background colour. The bold black contour lines constitute the outline of the scenery, which then joins to form geometrical colour plates. The artist abandoned the traditional practice of reproducing a three-dimensional effect by perspective technique, instead he used different colours to represent the inside and outside of an entity, so as to manifest the aesthetics of plane design. The body of the goose is constituted by simple lines, showing Shiy's attempt to strike a balance between concrete and abstract representation.
Shiy De-Jinn has long been devoting his efforts to gain experience with different painting tools of water painting, oil painting, water-and-ink painting and sketching. Shiy began to innovate within water-and-ink since 1970s, he re-examined traditional themes such as landscape and flowers with modern mindset and live experience. In Ducks under Taro Leaves (Lot 2168), the artist reassigned a new look for the flower and birds. Shiy grasped the clear relation between different layers of the scene, and created variation of light and shadow with translucent water and ink. By practicing the Han style calligraphy since the end of the 60s, Shiy developed the skill of drawing simple but powerful lines. The clean and clear lines in Ducks under Taro Leaves highlighted the three-dimensional effect of the leave blades. With exquisite water-and-ink painting technique, Shiy exhibits the Eastern appeal and the beauty of ink in his depiction of the ducks' body and expression.
"If practice well, one can obtain superb capability like Mr. Lin Fengmian does, and one can control whatever lines and shape he would like to paint," said Shiy De-Jinn when he entered NCA. Shiy has never rested his pursuit in the control of lines and accurate modeling. Young Man with a Suitcase (Lot 2169) is drawn with charcoal pencil alone, the boy waiting with his leather suitcase is made vividly alive on paper, both in terms of his physical appeal and inner spirit, simply by the intertwining lines and shadow, manifesting the artist's advanced and well-grounded skills.