Sculpture

1991

Length:35 x Width:85 x Height:47.5 (cm)

Chou Yi-Hsiung (1943-2015, Chingshui, Taichung) began studying Western painting under Chi Yu-Chuan during his time at Chingshui Junior High School. He later received guidance from Wen Chi, Wu Cheng-Chun, and Tsao Wei-Chu at Chingshui Senior High School. In 1962, he was admitted to the Sculpture Division of the National Taiwan Academy of Arts (now National Taiwan University of Arts), where he studied under Chiu Yun (1912-2009), Ho Ming-Chi (1921-2002), and Yang Ying-Feng (1926-1997). After completing military service in 1966, he taught at Chingshui High School, later transferring in 1973 to Huaxia Junior College’s Department of Architecture. He continued his studies under Yu Jen (1906-2011) and Yao Meng-Ku (1912-1993). In 1989, he served as a part-time lecturer at both the National Taiwan Academy of Arts and Chung Yuan Christian University. From 1997 to 2000, he served as an executive director of the Sculpture Association of the Republic of China. Between 2003 and 2005, he was an adjunct associate professor at the Graduate Institute of Fine Arts at National Taiwan Normal University, and from 2006 to 2009, he taught as an associate professor at National Yunlin University of Science and Technology until his retirement.
Art critic Tseng Su-Liang categorized Chou’s creative output into three major periods: works before 1988 centered on the Figures in Elegance series; from 1989 to 1999, he focused on the Music and Dance of Southern Tang series; and from 2000 onward, he developed the Ripples and Energy series.
Pipa belongs to the period in which Chou drew inspiration from Nanguan musicians. The bronze sculpture depicts a woman in traditional dress playing a Nanguan pipa, a lute-like instrument associated with Nanguan music. Executed in a classical academic realist style, the figure wears a gentle smile as she looks toward the frets beneath her left hand, while her right hand is poised above the instrument’s body in a plucking gesture. The composition conveys the poised, graceful, and restrained qualities characteristic of Nanguan performance.

Accession number:20170300158