The most famous work of artist Lin Chih-chu, an important figure in Taiwan's pre-and postwar modern art movement, has been reproduced with the help of high-resolution scans.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00A woman in a richly embroidered kimono locks eyes with two goats in her path.
00:05The scene unfolds against a backdrop of lush foliage,
00:08vines growing on a trellis that take up most of the canvas.
00:12The English title of this painting has been variously translated as
00:15Cool Morning or Coolness in the Morning.
00:18But what's not in dispute is that this enigmatic painting
00:21is a classic of modern Taiwanese art,
00:24and it's been on the Culture Ministry's list of valuable antiquities since 2015.
00:29Now, thanks to a reproduction made with a high-definition scan,
00:33the work can be displayed in two places, expanding its audience.
00:37The unveiling of the replica came at the Memorial Centre in Taichung
00:41that remembers the artist who painted it, Lin Zhizhu,
00:44a building where Lin once lived and worked.
00:47Lin's son hopes the reproduction of his father's most celebrated painting
00:51will bring a greater audience to what his father achieved.
00:54It's not just the painting itself, but the details seen from the viewpoint.
00:58If you look at it from the outside,
01:01you'll see that he's putting his spirit into it.
01:04So it's a different kind of painting.
01:07This 1940 painting is Lin's most famous work
01:10and is supposed to have been his favourite.
01:13It was painted during Japan's colonial rule over Taiwan,
01:16when Lin was a fine arts student in Tokyo with big ambitions.
01:20This was his entry for a highly selective exhibition
01:23to mark 2,600 years of imperial rule in Japan.
01:27The idea of a mere student winning over the judges was hard to imagine,
01:31but Lin pulled it off,
01:33becoming the only entry from a Taiwanese painter to make the cut.
01:37Though Lin died in 2008, aged 91,
01:40his place in the Taiwanese art firmament is uncontested.
01:44He's especially remembered for his mastery of a difficult technique
01:48involving painting a mix of glue and pigment onto silk.
01:52Some in the art world hope to draw more attention
01:55to the glue tempera technique Lin made his trademark
01:58and pass down to a generation of younger Taiwanese artists.
02:14With the replica's debut,
02:16Taiwan now has another way to remember
02:18one of its most important painters of modern times
02:21and a chance to rediscover the rest of his life's work.
02:24Justin Wu and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.