Hwang Chao-mo was born in 1940 in Tunggang Township, Pintung County. In 1963, he started a degree in art at the Chinese Culture College (today Chinese Culture University). Hwang stayed on as an assistant teacher after graduating in 1967 due to his exceptional grades, later becoming a fullyfledged lecturer. Years later, Hwang resigned his teaching position in 1973 to study in Belgium, fulfilling his dream of seeing the great Western masterpieces and furthering his art studies. Hwang, who was a skilled calligrapher and painter from his art degree in Taiwan, received a rigorous training in Western painting and sculpture at the Belgian Royal College of Art. Hwang held his first solo exhibition after graduating in 1977 at the Brussels Qianlong Gallery. Hwang remained in Belgium where he painted and held numerous further exhibitions. In 1980, he started teaching calligraphy at Leuven University. In 1988, he returned to Taiwan to take up an invitation to head the art department at the Chinese Culture University. The same year, he was asked by the Council for Cultural Affairs to restore Huang Tushui's bronze statue of Sakyamuni Buddha. He was employed as a judge for Chi Mei Corporation's art training scheme. As the head of a school for overseas Chinese in Belgium, Hwang spared no effort for the education of overseas Chinese and promoting art exchanges between Taiwan and Europe, for which he won an award.
Hwang Chao-mo's subjects and techniques were the main factors that made his style unique. He believed that his artistic inspiration was his devout love for the land and people. Hwang Chao-mo produced a series of Taiwanese landscapes in which he expressed his deep feelings for and appreciation of his native land. This piece is an atmospheric depiction of the blue skies and sea of Jialuoshui.
Hwang Chao-mo developed a passion for art from a young age, painting graffiti as a child and sketching outdoor scenes in middle school art lessons. He also became interested in calligraphy during this time and taught himself by copying classic works. This was the beginning of his self-taught period. In 1963, he started an art degree at Chinese Culture University, where he learned painting techniques and theory. After his earlier experience painting outdoor scenes, nature was naturally a major subject of his work, and he developed an understanding of natural forms. After graduation, he remained at his alma mater to teach a course in sculpture. As he explored his artistic style, he began experimenting with the three-dimensional art of sculpture, forming an understanding of the relationship between the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional. Hwang started exploring space in paintings, which became a central theme of this works for a period.
In 1973, Hwang went to Belgium, where he learned sculpture with artists from all over the world. Exposure to this multicultural environment caused him to develop a strong desire to explore his roots, and he started looking at ways of highlighting his culture in his art. Establishing his own unique style became a major focus of his work at this time. After receiving training in Western painting and sculpture, Hwang who was also proficient in Chinese painting and calligraphy, experimented with using traditional Chinese art tools in an attempt to incorporate characteristics of Chinese painting and calligraphy into this paintings. Hwang used watercolor and oil but treated them as ink, employing Chinese brush techniques and using dots, lines and wash techniques of Chinese painting. This instilled his works with quiet and restrained emotional expression.
Because of his love of nature, the subject of Hwang's paintings were often landscapes showing distant, expansive panoramas. Hwang was able to reconcile the Chinese and Western elements in his works, regardless of whether they were oil or ink wash paintings. He also integrated the spacial effects of physical objects into flat paintings.
Chinese title: | 佳洛水 |
English title: | Jialuoshui |
Decade: | 2001 |
Medium / Classification: | Oil paints and Acrylic colors |
Dimensions: | 90×72 cm |
Artist: | Hwang Chao-mo |
Life-span: | 1939 - |
Collection Unit: | Courtesy of the artist |
Contact method for authorization: | Representative: Huang Shu-Lian |
Related Exhibition: | "The Pioneers" of Taiwanese Artists, 1931-1940 |