Mei-Shu Li's Unfinished Legacy

Wang Jiafong

April 1983

中文

At the end of last year, veteran artist Mei-shu Li held an exhibition to commemorate his 80th birthday at the National Museum of History in Taipei. The elder statesman of the art movement in the Republic of China said confidently and calmly, "In the time I have left, I must create a clear image in the Taiwan art world." But Li ran out of time. He died on Feb 6, one month after the close of the exhibition, leaving his wishes unfulfilled.

For 20 years, Li devoted himself to art education, and his strict methods helped to develop the abilities of innumerable artists in Taiwan. Li never sold his paintings except when on occasion he needed money to help a student finance a graduation exhibition. His entire life was devoted to the progress of the art movement in the ROC, and into his old age, he continued to struggle to improve the art education system.

His creation of beautiful and realistic art works in oil over the past 60 years caused many to compare him to the Great Wall of China. Yet he never rested on his laurels, explaining, "Life is short, but art is long. After 60 years of constant exploration, I still feel that I have not reached the pinnacle of artistic endeavor."

For 36 years he also dedicated himself to the reconstruction of the Tsu Shih Temple in Sanhsia, Taipei County. This temple, known as a "Palace of Oriental Art", became Li's greatest disappointment. As he lay dying, he thought of his incomplete task and asked, "Who will continue my work?"

Apart from being an artist and a teacher, Li was a mentor of the art movement, a legislator, and in his later years he devoted himself to the temple reconstruction.

Looking through a collection of Mei-shu Li's works is like stepping back into the past. There are ancient flowered fabrics, old sewing machines, and pictures of simple country women of older times. Pictures feature women washing by the stream in the early morning and reading scriptures at the temple in the afternoon. The figures in the paintings give the viewer a feeling of familiarity, warmth, and realism. Dresses reflect the changes that took place in village life and leave a record of the history of customs in Taiwan.

Li never changed the substance of his style, although he continuously elevated it to new heights. He wrote in the preface to his collected works, "Perhaps due to my natural disposition, during my years of study in Japan I never strayed from my personal artistic ideals, even though there were several new waves of popular thinking which took the art world by storm, most notable being a new fascination with Fauvism. I continued to maintain my confidence and steadfastness, working earnestly in the school of realism and seeking to affirm the validity of my efforts. In the decade of the 1960s Taiwan was swept by the newly-emerging vitality of the abstract school. Yet this again was not enough to disturb my confidence, and I continued to follow the path of realism, ignoring criticism from others."

In 1918, Li entered the Taiwan Governor-General Japanese School (now the Provincial Taipei Teachers' College) and began his formalized studies of the Fine Arts. In his first year, he began buying Japanese art books and soon taught himself the art of oil painting. After graduation, he wanted to go to Japan to continue his art education, but his family disapproved. He settled down to a life of teaching while continuing to paint. Eventually, after he had taken part in several shows, his family consented for him to travel to Japan and continue his studies.

In 1928 he went to the Fine Arts School in Tokyo (now Japan's National Art University), and was to remain in Japan for five years. After returning, he discovered he was still on the same artistic course he had charted years before. He used Western painting techniques to depict the countryside around his home in Sanhsia. The figures in his paintings are all relatives, friends, and neighbors.

Li did not usually sell his works, because he felt close to them. Each was like a child to him. In a similar way, his reconstruction of the Tsu Shih Temple was a personal matter. Located in Sanhsia, it is one of the oldest temples in Taiwan, dating back 200 years. After World War Two, Li found the temple in ruins, and started planning its reconstruction. He made sure the work progressed slowly to ensure that everything was done properly. He hired the finest artisans to work on the temple while he designed every part, from stone pillars to wooden beams himself. All work was done by hand in the traditional way. Because of his prudent and strict manner, the temple was still not completely restored when he died, more than 30 years after he began the project. Even so, the temple has been given the name "Palace of Oriental Art."

Said a member of Li's family "We can do nothing about the temple grandfather devoted half his life to. We are not artists, and can only pass on the ideas he left before he died to someone who can carry on the work. What we can do however, is collect all the paintings he refused to sell during his lifetime, and display them in the future in an art museum to be built in Sanhsia."

[Picture Caption]

1. "Dusk" is one of Mei-li Shu's representative early works, dating from 1952. In 1963, the curator of the French Oriental Art Museum came to Taiwan and offered the artist US$20,000 for the painting, but Li could not bear to part with it. 2. The master at work. 3. "Girl in the White Dress" was completed in 1952. 4. "Sanhsia Riverside" a work from 1977.

1. "Relaxing on Holiday"; 1975. 2. "Sunset on the Terrace"; 1962. The model is the artist's daughter. 3. "Suao Harbor"; 1964. 4. "Hot Summer"; 1942. 5. "Daybreak by the River" painted in 1969 shows the women of Sanhsia doing their washing at the riverside.

1. A door of the Tsu Shih Temple in Sanhsia. The doors were carved by students of Li, while he himself designed the two stone lions. 2. "Fishmarket in the Pescadores"; 1971. 3. "Taroko Gorge"; 1968. 4. "On a Cattle Farm"; 1980. 5. "Daybreak"; 1968.