| dc.description.abstract | The veteran painter Su Wong-Shen (b. 1956, Taiwan) is famous for his “animalstyled” paintings. Established in 1988, the style refers to an artistic practice that intertwines naturalistic and abstract representation in a temporal spatial context. The subject matters include fragmentary buildings from the countryside, omnipresent animals, while human beings are notably absent. These characteristics—referred to in this paper as “Magical Realistic Scene,”—resulted in the works’ ambiguous narrative and lyrical atmosphere. Previous to the establishment of this style, the artist painted in an overtly abstract manner for nearly a decade, during which his canvases were generally covered with lines, dots, and color patterns. Thus, Su’s Magical Realistic Scene marks a transitional point in his stylistic development. While past studies were carried out through either biographical or stylistic approach, this paper aims to examine the relationship between the two: how the artist’s living experience, his migration between multiple cities (e.g. Tamsui, Zuoying, and Anping), influenced his stylistic choices. This paper also intends to broaden the past scholarship that predominantly emphasizes the iconographical interpretation of Su’s animal motifs.
According to Su Wong-Shen’s interview records, his living condition and real-life encounters are crucial to the stylistic features of his paintings. Magical Realistic Scene
not only represents the real world, it also showcases the artist’s pursuit for formal beauty. Through the technique of “imagery collage,” he transforms scenic views of the places
he dwells into shapes and colors of his paintings. The temporal-spatial visions presented in his paintings reflect the artist’s tension of navigating between his internal self and the external reality he comprehends. This tension makes his works transcend the singular temporal and spatial definition of certain incidences, and exceed beyond the documentary recordings of culture and everyday life. Tracing the forces behind the birth of his Magical Realistic Scene, this paper emphasizes Su Wong-Shen’s Tamsui period (1988-1998) and how the development of this new style shapes his later works during the Zuoying period (1999-2017) and Anping period (2017- present). The major sources this study rely upon include the four interviews with the artist himself, as well as field and archival research conducted by the author in Tamsui.
This paper contains three chapters. Chapter one shows Su’s training at the Chinese Culture University, where, inspired by Western art, he studied intensively the spatial iii structures of paintings and began working in abstract style. The chapter also places his Magical Realistic Scene into the historical, political, and social contexts. Chapter two
explores the artist’s theoretical thinking, his pursuit for formal beauty, and his “imagery collage” method. I focus on the theme of humans and reveal how the actions of animals
and the overall composition of the works are used by the artist as metaphor for various human natures. Chapter three focuses on the theme of hometown landscape. I analyze
the change in emphasis from animal to landscape scenery as the artist’s predominant subject matter. Old trees, battered walls, temples, golden incense burners, and historical
houses frequently appeared on his canvases during this period. The chapter also showcases how these repetitively-painted elements intersect with Su Wong-Shen’s
cultural background, historical memories, and his reception of the ever-changing temporal-spatial experiences. | en_US |