Eastern Gouache

2004

Length:45 x Width:33 (cm)

Lin Chih-Chu (1917-2008, Daya, Taichung) went to study in Tokyo, Japan, in 1928. In 1934, he was admitted to the Japanese painting department of the Imperial Art School (now Musashino Art University). In 1940, his work was selected for the “2600th Anniversary of the Imperial Era Commemorative Art Exhibition.” After returning to Taiwan, he won the First Prize Governor’s Award twice at the Taiwan Governor-General’s Art Exhibition (Futen), securing his position in the Taiwanese art world. In 1946, he began teaching at Taichung Normal School (now National Taichung University of Education), where he remained until his retirement in 1979. Amid postwar debates over the “orthodoxy of traditional Chinese painting,” Lin proposed that painting styles should be classified by medium. He advocated for the recognition of gouache painting (Japanese-style color painting on paper or silk), organizing gouache painting associations and exhibitions. Throughout his life, he dedicated himself to the preservation and promotion of this medium, earning the title “Father of Gouache Painting in Taiwan.”
This painting captures the fleeting bloom of the night-blooming cereus, a flower that unfurls only in the quiet hours of late summer and early autumn. Two blossoms take center stage, their soft pink and white petals layered with a gentle, inner glow. On the left, a tightly closed bud balances the composition with its opposing direction, creating visual tension and harmony. Deep green leaves and a cool blue background enhance the serene beauty of the flowers, evoking their gentle scent and moonlit grace. Lin used multiple translucent washes to create a delicate, refined effect that lends the work a quiet elegance. Often called “beauties of the night,” cereus flowers were a favorite subject for Lin Chih-Chu. As early as 1952, he exhibited Spring Night at the Seventh Taiwan Provincial Art Exhibition, and later created Night Fragrance (1970, private collection) and Cereus (1976, collection of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts), among others.

Accession number:20170300058