Ink Painting

2019

Length:140 x Width:70 (cm)

Chang Ming-Shan (b. 1943, Taichung) graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at the National Taiwan Academy of Arts (now National Taiwan University of Arts), where he studied under master painter Fu Chuan-Fu (1910-2007). Following graduation, he pursued a career in teaching and ink painting. His works have been selected for major exhibitions, including A New Horizon of Chinese Contemporary Painting at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and he has held solo and group shows in Taiwan, China, and Japan.
Even the Birds Know the Joy of Spring captures a lighthearted moment: nine pigeons perched on a weathered red-tile roof, one of them peeking curiously through a gap in the tiles, as if spying on the room below. The scene is drawn from a sketch made during the artist’s Lunar New Year trip to Hsin She, where the quaint charm of an old country house left a deep impression. From this initial sketch, Chang refined the composition into the finished piece. Using colored ink, Chang combines fine brushwork to articulate the birds’ gestures with rich ink washes that give form to their bodies, as well as to the surrounding banana and bamboo leaves. The composition radiates the gentle warmth of early spring and evokes the quiet pleasures of rural life. With its keen observation and subtle humor, the painting reflects the artist’s sensitivity to nature and his poetic view of the everyday.

Accession number:20200100079