Colorful Innovations on Inkwash Painting—Huang Kuang-nan’s Artistic World

Huang was born in Kaohsiung in 1944. His family was poor, but his father was a passionate gardener. The family’s beautifully tended garden and Huang’s grandmother’s skillfully woven bamboo sunhats nurtured Kuang-nan’s aesthetic sensibilities. When his future wife first visited his family home, even she exclaimed with surprise: “Isn’t your family poor? How come you have such a beautiful garden?”

As the eldest son, Kuang-nan from a young age helped out with farm work and domestic chores such as washing clothes, cooking, and minding his younger siblings. As a child of a poor family, he could only study in the odd moments away from his family duties.

His childhood, full of sweaty labor as it was, helped to refine his observational powers and his appreciation for the beauty and vitality of nature. From the fields, he could see such peaks as Mt. Bagua, Mt. Banping and Mt. Dawu, and the green ridges layered one behind another. “The beautiful scene made me want to capture that moving feeling in a painting,” Huang says.

Coming from a poor family, Huang couldn’t afford paper and brushes, so he would draw the mountain scenery using sand for paper and sticks for brushes. He thus had a lot of practice before he actually took up painting.

In junior high school Chiang Ching-jung, a teacher and mentor who changed the course of Huang’s life, saw his artistic potential. The day of March 18, 1960 is one that Huang remembers as if it were yesterday. Chiang brought Huang to his house to paint and then entered one of Huang’s paintings in a Pingtung County competition. It came in second, and for Huang the award was extremely validating.

The Meanders of Gaoping Creek 70 × 70 cm, 2015

Nature is the best teacher

His memories of his busy life on the farm raising chickens and ducks and planting rice became the source of his creative inspiration. Huang’s representative works feature flowers and birds in natural settings. For instance, Auspicious Dawn shows the shores of Chengqing Lake, which is located close to his childhood home. The painting vividly captures the cranes by the water’s edge. “When I was young, no matter how poor you were, seeing the sun rise would always fill people with hope,” Huang says. In The Joyous Yearly Bounty of the Lychee, the lychee tree laden with fruit, the magpies, and the circling bees offer a sense of celebration for the abundant produce of this treasure isle.

After teaching for many years, Huang became a student again, enrolling in the Chinese department of National Kaohsiung Normal University. Huang, who is obsessed with Chinese culture and believes that “the traditional is the mother of the modern,” carried out in-depth research into classical Chinese literature and the art history of various dynasties. With a strong grounding in literature and art, Huang strengthened the foundations of his understanding of Eastern culture.

When Huang served as director of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, he visited famous museums around the world. These trips deepened his exposure to Modernism and Dadaism, which broadened his artistic horizons. Huang brought Western conceptions of art into his own paintings, which moved from realism toward greater abstraction. For instance, in his paintings Rising Sun and Brilliant Gold Mountain Tops, from his “Light and Shadows” series, Huang uses black for much of the background, and then red, white and gold geometric shapes for the sun, tree silhouettes, and other depicted objects. The compositions are bold and lively.

The Joyous Yearly Bounty of the Lychee 210 × 138 cm, 2015

Paintings of many moods

“There is a story behind every painting,” says Huang Kuang-nan, who imbues his work with great feeling. In 2015, after suffering the loss of his mother, Huang came out with the series “Mother’s Garden,” which includes renderings of the flowers and plants that his mother planted, thereby expressing his deep gratitude for her.

The current show features Huang’s “Heavenly Questions” series, which was inspired by the literary classic Songs of Chu. On a black ink base, he has liberally applied layers of colors to create five paintings that depict each of the traditional Chinese elements: metal, wood, water, earth and fire. Meanwhile, The Six Coordinates (the four compass directions plus up and down) captures the magnificent vastness of the universe, the insignificance of present-day social turmoil in the grand scheme of things, the artist’s indifference to worldly success or failure, and ultimately his hopes for the future.

A brush or pen at hand

Huang is extremely prolific. In addition to his art, he has also published numerous written works, including academic papers, art criticism, essays, travelogues, and so forth. Liao Hsin-tien, dean of the College of Humanities at the National Taiwan University of Arts, praises him for keeping pens or brushes always at hand. “Whenever I see Huang Kuang-nan, if there’s not an art brush in his hand, there’s a ball-point pen.”

“I paint to satisfy my own creative needs,” Huang says. Passionate about life, he hopes that his paintings, whether abstract or figurative, tell stories and convey sincere warmth.

Huang has integrated Western painting techniques into his strong command of traditional Chinese inkwash painting. He is constantly innovating, constantly exploring new and different sides to this ancient art. 

Auspicious Dawn 136 × 70 cm, 2015

Rising Sun 69 × 68 cm, 2015

Flower Show 69 × 99 cm, 2015 In his series “Mother’s Garden,” Huang captures detailed images of the plants and flowers in his mother’s garden. The works are an expression of how deeply he misses her.

Spring Wind of Enlightenment 69 × 70 cm, 2015

At the opening of Huang Kuang-nan’s show “Light • Color—Dancing in the Shadows of Time and Space,” a distinguished group of attendees only added to the art’s splendor. Liu Chao-shiuan, director of the General Association of Chinese Culture, is standing on the left. Seated, from left: Feng Ming-chu, director of the National Palace Museum; Hung Meng-chi, minister of culture; and Huang Jong-Tsun, professor at China Medical University. (photo by Gu Jintang)

“Heavenly Questions”: Fire, 69 × 137 cm, 2015 The “Heavenly Questions” series represents a courageous breakthrough for the artist. The works possess a strong visual tension, like fireworks amid darkness.

“Heavenly Questions”: Earth, 69 × 137 cm, 2015

“Heavenly Questions”: The Six Coordinates, 69 × 137 cm, 2015