Ink Painting

1989

Length:243.9 x Width:61.4 (cm)

Chiang Ming-Hsien (b. 1942, Tungshih, Taichung) was graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). In 1974, he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain, and later lived in New York. He taught at the NTNU Department of Fine Arts and also traveled to Japan and China for plein air painting. His core artistic practice centers on ink-and-wash sketching, integrating traditional Eastern brushwork and ink-wash techniques with Western elements such as perspective and color use found in oil painting and drawing. In 1988, he received the National Award for Arts and has held solo exhibitions, academic forums, and participated actively in ink painting exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.
According to the inscription on the piece, this work was created during Chiang Ming-Hsien’s 1989 sketching trip to Nanjing and Jiangsu. Presented in the format of a handscroll, the painting captures the waterways of Suzhou, lined with Jiangnan-style houses and local boats. The perspective places the viewer aboard a boat, gazing upon the scenery along both banks of the canal. The rising and falling arrangement of houses and vessels creates a rhythmic visual flow, unfolding like a scroll. The red doors and the red and green garments hanging out to dry draw the viewer’s eye and evoke the everyday life and customs of Suzhou. As the scroll is unrolled, the viewer experiences a sense of journeying through Suzhou’s waterways by boat.

Accession number:20170300241