Liang Chen Ming, known for his meticulous landscape paintings, is one of the iconic artists in the post-war Taiwan who embrace the modern movement of ink paintings by incorporating the studies of materials and phenomenology into his works.
Born in 1971, Liang Chen Ming had not jumped on the bandwagon of the Taiwanese trend of abstract ink paintings in the 1960s, or the Nativist Movement in the 1970s. At a slightly more mature age, he witnessed the rise of the Age of Museums, which occurred in Taiwan during the 1980s. Despite a boom in digital and mobile devices in the 1990s, he opted for the seemingly traditional calligraphic ink as his creative tool and media. We might infer that it has something to do with his identity as one of “the second generation of mainlanders” born and bred in Gangshan, Kaohsiung, a region famed for its abundance of “military dependents’ villages.” His father, who had raised three young children on his own, and served as a maintenance worker at school, was his pillar and strength. In times of solitude and hardship, he looked to his father for guidance, support, and courage to forge ahead.
His interest in ink paintings was sparked by teachers Han Yong and Li Chun Chi. After graduating from elementary school, he began his education in fine arts in junior high school, which he studied all the way through senior high school. In 1991, he was enrolled in the Fine Arts Department, National Institute of the Arts (now Taipei National University of the Arts, or TNUA), then located in Luzhou District. Under guidance of Lee Yih Hong (1941-) and Lin Chang-hu (1955-), he embarked on a journey into the world of ink paintings.
In 1993, he portrayed the maiden grass in Caoshan and Jiufen, New Taipei City, in excruciating detail, leaving viewers with an aesthetic feeling of desolation and solitude. It marked the beginning of the “Ink Taiwan” series, which won him much attention. In 1994, he placed first in the Fine Arts Department Ink Painting Exhibition, the Ma Saw Hwa Chinese brush painting scholarship, and the Chang Ku-Nien scholarship contest. The next year, 1995, he again took first place in both the Chang Ku-Nien and Liu Yian-Tao scholarship contests. Winning the scholarships established by the traditional ink painters is a testament to Liang’s contribution and accomplishments in the art. A closer look at the professional training he had received during the period reveals his pursuit of excellence, and the breadth and depth of his learning, ranging from the Chinese fine art history, history of Buddhism, history of objects, to the Japanese glue-color paintings. In 1996, he was honored with Tzu Chi’s art scholarship in the fine arts theory category.
It is clear from the dedication and achievements of this young ink painter that he is not bound by conventions of traditional ink paintings, but seeks a broader and more profound approach. He said, “Isn’t it necessary, if we see ink wash as merely a material, to delve into its attributes? Our understanding of the materials has mostly been shaped by traditional norms, rather than by our own analysis, reasoning and judgment. When we take everything before our eyes for granted without even an attempt to think critically, our vision would be clouded by ignorance. If we simply succumb to existing beliefs and follow in the footsteps of the predecessors, without trying to reexamine the reasons behind them, we will always be dwarfed by their achievements, and fail to come up with more innovative ideas.”
After comprehensive learning in college and a short teaching tenure at a junior high school, Liang pursued further studies at the Graduate Institute of Fine Arts at his alma mater in 1999. Advised by Lee Yih Hong, he began research on the materials of “ink and black,” and completed his master’s thesis entitled “Creative Speculation of Ink and Black.”
Liang, who had based his research on the study of materials during the period, thoroughly dissected the differences between the ink color of Chinese ink paintings and the black pigments of Western paintings. In addition to differences in the materials’ attributes, he found that ink boasts finer carbon granules and more fixed color tones than black pigments, whose color tones might vary with their ingredients. He also maintained that the concept of “common origin of calligraphy and painting” in the Eastern art was derived from the traditional idea that ink is mainly about writing, and the black pigment, drawing.
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What lies behind Liang’s study of materials is his mastery of creative materials, and a subtle reflection on his own category of paintings. Thus he commented, “In a general sense, ink belongs to black pigments. A work using the black pigment, ink or not, is most of the times regarded as an ink painting, if no hint is given by the artist. As the saying goes, ‘One who stays near ink gets stained black,’ it is not necessary to stick to the categorization of paintings. Despite offering a convenient way to communicate, categorization of paintings has its limitation, and not absolutely mirrors the thoughts of the creator. You need to blur or break the demarcation lines of materials to push the boundaries of possibilities.”
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He added, “The tradition of ink paintings has been formed within certain historical and geographical circumstances. The artists who have made an awakened choice of materials should allow the modern viewers, who have been accustomed to Western visual experience, to rethink the contemporary values of ink wash.”
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In 2002, his work titled “Creative Speculation of Ink and Black” was featured in the graduation exhibition for the Graduate Institute of Fine Arts at Xizhitang Gallery, Taipei. The rich layers and varied forms of mountains and rocks in Taiwan were accentuated with his simple yet dense dots of ink. He made a break from the old Chinese landscape imagery, expressing in his paintings his candid contemplation and introspection of the natural landscape of Taiwan in a language of his innermost feelings. The mesmerizing depth of his paintings is the culmination of his research on media during graduate school. To gain more insights into renowned ancient ink sticks, he had visited several places in China, including Jiang Si Xu Tang and Zhouzhuang in Suzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Huangshan Shexian Laohukaiwen Ink Factory, She County, Anhui Province. He even made ink sticks with diverse materials ranging from pomegranate, betel-nut taro (Colocasia esculenta var esculenta), Eucommia skin, mat grass, to Tung oil. He not only tried each of them, but created a series of color chips for comparison’s sake.
His work in the graduation exhibition for the graduate program had won him attention from the world of art critics, who described him as employing “Layers of Ink Points – A Simple Innovative Approach to Ancient Ink Paintings.”
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The simple yet dense quality of Liang’s works of art echoes his philosophy towards learning and artistic development. After obtaining his master’s degree, he continued his scrupulous research on the basis of his thesis. In 2003, he published a paper entitled “A Study on the Quality and Application of Japanese Liquid Ink.”
[5] In the study, he compared a total of 33 Japanese liquid inks sold in Taiwan, and, after using each of them, found that they are distinguished from Taiwanese ones in many ways. He maintained that the liquid inks made in Japan are tailor-made to cater to the creative needs of Japanese calligraphists and ink painters. The users’ perception and choice of ink are, therefore, the key factors that decide the attributes of the ink materials.
Ink Inquiry, published with funds from the National Institute for Compilation and Translation, is the result of five years of research, compilation and expansion. Subjects covered in the book include: categorization of the ink, black and related materials employed by painters throughout the history, introduction to publications on ink and black, comparison of the processes and procedure of making solid/liquid ink and black pigments, analysis and introduction to the procedure of making solid ink adopted by different dynasties in China, discussion on historical literature about the procedure and concept of making ink and black, comparison of the methods of applying ink and black employed by painting artists in various dynasties and the logics behind them, and study on the relationships among the properties, application methods and the underlying concepts of the materials. Suffice to say that Ink Inquiry is one of the most paradigmatic publications on the study of materials in the contemporary world of painting.
Liang pursues artistic creation with the mindset of a researcher. This is reminiscent of how Huang Binhong, an artist in the early Republic period, had completed a book called A Collection of Historical Treatises on Painting. While requiring a great amount of work to compile historical treatises on painting, the masterpiece had in turn enriched his artistic expression.
His commitment and perseverance towards research has brought him enormous success. Funded by research grant from the National Culture and Arts Foundation, “Unbuffered Paper Development and Research” (2005) was a collaborative work with Guangxing Paper Mill. To write the book A Study on the Dragon-Pattern Columns in Taiwanese Temples (2006-2010), he had visited over 300 temples around Taiwan, where he took nearly 10,000 photos. The latter was published in 2010 with funds from National Institute for Compilation and Translation.
Veering back to his artistic practice, the years following his graduation from the TNUA graduate institute in 2002 marked a time of reconstruction and preparation for him. During his tenure at Overseas Chinese Institute of Technology, Taichung, in 2004, he often stopped by to take pictures of the stone weir in Waipu, Houlong Township, Miaoli County, when traveling back and forth between hometown and workplace. He happened to accept an invitation to shoot the tea mountains in Taiwan, which allowed him to tour such places as Longyanlin in Meishan Township, Da Lun Mountain in Lugu Township, Tayuling, Lishan, and Shihjhuo in Chiayi County. This enabled him to observe, perceive and interpret the forests and mountains in Taiwan in a more in-depth way.
As a matter of fact, Liang made his first trip to Huangshan in mainland China in the spring of 2001. As the sacred mountain celebrated by numberless ink painting artists, it filled him with awe and respect with its ancient pines, magnificent peaks, clouds and fog. He said with regret, “There were thousands of beautiful sights and wondrous rocks for me to draw, but the fact that I could not stay there for long makes me feel like seeing things through a mist. I found it hard to put inspirations into practice.”
In 2007, Liang changed jobs to teach at the Department of Art History, Tainan National University of the Arts, turning his focus back to artistic creation itself. The “Awakening of the Black” solo exhibition in 2009 summarized his works during this phase, featuring several of his significant paintings such as The Black World of Green Green Grass (1995-2009), Tainan Confucian Temple Under the Black Leaves (2008), The Black Mountain at Twilight (2009), Black Rocks Standing Against a Backdrop of Mountains (2009). In his composition, he took a closer look at leaves, grass, mountain rocks, and clouds to capture their full texture. Liang strived to illustrate his spontaneous feelings by analyzing a large number of photos. By eliciting emotions by looking into the nature of things, he dedicated himself solely to the landscape in order to express his deepest sentiments. His paintings, where not a soul could be seen, were suffused with a profound solitude and serenity.
The death of his father, his long-time mentor who became sick and passed away at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital in 2010, caused Liang to rethink his life. He tried to free him of the psychological trauma of parental loss by devoting himself to abstract ink landscape paintings characterized by “nameless virtuality.” While taking a turn back to the meticulous, realistic style of ink paintings, the “Seascape” series (2012) showcased a broader perspective and more extensive use of colors.
Ever since 2008, Liang has been drawn to the unique natural landscape of Penghu, renowned for its basalt with prominent joints, the spectacular scene reflected in the waters of the sea, isolated islets in the sea, white beaches, etc. He has since then made a few trips to the islands of Penghu, including Cimei, Wang-an, Tongpan, Mudou, and Gupo. He also revisited Toucheng Township and Gueishan Island in Yilan County, Kenting and Syuhai in Pingtung County, Longdong in Gongliao Township, Fenniaolin Port in Nan’ao Township, and Gaomei Wetland in Wuqi District, Taichung City, not to mention such places as Tamsui, Linshanbi and Laomei in Shimen District, all located along Taiwan’s north coast, where he had as a student traveled with his teachers several times. In addition, he went to Zamami, Kouri, Sesoko and Ishigaki islands in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, among others, with a view to comparing natural landscapes in diverse cultural contexts.
Liang approaches scenes with an almost scientific method of phenomenology. He does not sketch and paint on site, seeing sketching as merely a method to record key points for later reference. He makes extensive and even repeated trips to the places as mentioned above, mainly to locate images of interest and enrich his experience. Sights are captured with photos. Every journey is planned in advance with attention to detail, and route and time schedules for trips to the same place differ each time. The scenes at the same place may vary with time (at dawn or dusk), weather (on sunny, cloudy, winter or summer days), means of transportation (on foot or by boat), and even angles (with drone). Liang creates art with the conscientiousness of an academic researcher. He paints real landscapes at the studio, where he conducts drafting and arrangement of imagery in a precise, critical and speculative way. The objective is to deliver an ambience of sublimity and transcendence.
The “Seascape Imagery” exhibition featured works completed from 2011 to 2012. As opposed to his previous artworks that had been done mostly with ink, these works boasted large patches of color. The use of somewhat flamboyant, colorful bright colors gave them a dreamy artistic quality. There were even gold paintings, whether drawn on gold paper or with gold pigments. When transformed to create physical images, the gold was virtualized to render visual emotions, thus turning into an embodiment of mental imagery. To Liang, only the juxtaposition of reality and virtuality could make a real landscape.
His “A Million Words in Rocks” (2014) series showed a return to painstakingly detailed delineation of sea and mountain rocks. The artist expressed his emotions through art by illustrating the vastness and immensity of nature with fine lines, and reflecting his thoughts through drawing of rocks. Some paintings even employed square grids of fine lines to produce an imaginative artistic effect.
His recent works from 2015 to 2016 have displayed an even more panoramic view of his subjects. After leaving his teaching post to work as a full-time artist, Liang demonstrates a meticulous attention to detail in portraying “stones” or “real” landscape in his paintings (both pronounced Shi in Chinese). He attaches epiphanies and thoughts to every brushstroke with the fastidiousness of a monk engaged in sutra transcription work, giving his works a sense of peace and quiet that is almost religious.
In terms of the Chinese ink paintings, which have nearly a thousand-year history, the modern times has witnessed a growing gap between “academia” and “art.” We are pleasantly surprised, however, to see how Liang creates with the relentless assiduity as an academic researcher. During the “Modern Ink” movement of the post-war 1960s, there was an initiative to “revolutionize the zhong-feng (center-point) brush technique,” which emphasizes individuality. The initiative aimed to subvert the approach to “revolutionize” freehand brushwork with realism from the early Republic or the Japanese colonial period. The result was a carefree trend towards abstraction, followed by a tendency towards a realistic, seemingly photographic portrayal of rural landscapes, which led to mechanic reproduction of landscapes without a hint of emotion. Liang, who was born in the 1970s and received traditional art education in Taiwan, has reconstructed the structure and texture of classic ink paintings on the basis of profound and solid academic insight. Meanwhile, nevertheless, he strikes us with an enthralling balance between macroscopic and microscopic approaches of modern art, as well as between objective realism and subjective virtuality. You could sense a tinge of loneliness and arrogance in his solid depictions of vast natural expanses, which are distinctive of Liang’s “Ink Taiwan” and modern landscape paintings. He seems to follow the tradition of refined and exquisite ink paintings established by Yu Chen Yao (1898-1993) and Hsia Yi-Fu (1925-2016), and can be said to be the worthiest inheritor of the material and phenomenological studies spearheaded by Lee Yih Hong.
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