Liu Hai-su is not only the first artist to visit Taiwan as an "outstanding figure from the mainland" but is also the first mainland artist to have his works displayed in a major exhibition in a public museum on Taiwan.

Now in his nineties, Liu hails from Wuchin County, Kiangsu Province, the home county of the renowned Ch'ing Dynasty artist Yun Nan-t'ien. Precocisly gifted, Liu entered a private academy at the age of six, where he was trained in the Yun style of kung-pi flower-and-bird painting. Unsatisfied with the narrowness of that approach, he soon sought to establish a firm foundation in traditional drawing while testing his creativity with new themes. As he grew older, he studied the Chinese classics and dipped into Western literature, which further bolstered his self-confidence and originality.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, Chinese painting was still mired in the derivative practices of the Ch'ing Dynasty. Stimulated by Western art techniques, Liu hoped to open traditional Chinese painting to a new look, and in 1910 he and his friends Chang Yu-kuang, Chou Hsiang, and Wu Shih-kuang pooled their resources and founded the Shanghai Academy of the Pictorial Arts. They proclaimed three principles for the school in a declaration in the newspaper:

1) We must develop Oriental art by studying the riches of Western art;

2) We must carry out the responsibility of disseminating art in a heartless and dreary world and seek a revival of Chinese art;

3) We have no academic learning to speak of but we are confident of our sincerity to study and disseminate art.

The academy was the first specialized art school in Chinese history, and for a youth who was just seventeen years old at the time, Liu had achieved considerable renown.

He became even more famous as soon as people heard that female models were posing in the nude at the academy.

Although Shanghai was westernized in many ways, posing in the nude was still considered at the time to be a scandalous and immoral practice of the foreign barbarians. Liu had traveled overseas more than once, though, and had come to believe that sketching from the nude was an indispensable part of basic Western artistic techniques. At first the models were children, old people, and adult men, but later women were brought in to enable the students to master further differences in structure and texture.

When word got out that "girls were taking off their panties" at the school, Liu replied that just as medical students need courses in anatomy so artists need to study sketching from the nude.

But his explanation fell on deaf ears, and a public showing of the drawings caused a furor. The local warlord ordered the course stopped and denounced Liu for "ruining the morals of the nation's youth with the decadent practices of the barbarians."

Some time afterwards, when the Republican government's Northern Expeditionary forces took Shanghai and drove out the warlord, Liu had the course reinstated. The whole incident dragged on for six or seven years in all, and Liu's insistence in standing up for art earned him an even greater name for himself.

As for his painting style, fellow artist Liu K'ang-tseng has described it this way: "It belongs to the strong and forceful, grand and vigorous type, because the artists he most admires are Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Rodin, Van Gogh, Shih T'ao, and Pa Ta. . . . He likes Huang Shan much more than West Lake and prefers Peking to Soochow; he is fond of cold plums on the banks of Lake Tai in the dead of winter and dislikes peach blossoms at Lung-hua Temple in late spring. . . ."

Painting, to him, means more than mere representation. "It's not enough just to paint an exact replica of nature or to copy from a photograph." An artist, he has said, "is like a silkworm, which eats mulberry leaves and spits out threads of silk. . . ."

And the 105 works he brought with him on his visit to Taiwan are all typical examples of "fine silk." On the opening day of his exhibition at the National Museum of History museum director Ch'en Kuei-miao awarded him a gold badge in appreciation for his outstanding contributions to Chinese painting. He then went with his family to pay his respects at the tomb of Chiang Kai-shek and to visit the National Palace Museum. "That's been an ambition of mine for many years," he noted.

At the conclusion of his exhibition, he painted an impromptu work called The K'un-p'eng Spreads Its Wings on a Journey of 90,000 Li as a gift for the museum.

As for the rest of his itinerary, Liu indicates that after celebrating a special Chinese New Year's here he plans to paint Mount Ali in the south of the island and gain an appreciation of Taiwan's scenery. We hope the scenery will stimulate Liu to produce a few more wonderful "silken threads."

[Picture Caption]

Liu Hai-su, shown here taking part in a seminar, is still hale and hearty at the ripe old age of 95. (photo by Wen Chin Yang)

Camellia and Golden Pheasant.

Able to Tower Over Hsi-hai Peak.

Liu Hai-su chatted happily with museum director Ch'in Hsiao-i during his visit to the National Palace Museum. (photo by Wen Chin Yang)

Accompanied by Ch'in Hsiao-i, Liu examined a painting from the Ming dynasty at the museum and a copy. (photo by Wen Chin Yang)

The Myriad Ravines of Huang Shan Leap into view.

Kuang-ming Peak at Huang Shan.

As a gift to the National Museum of History, Liu completed an impromptu painting on the spot. (photo by Wen Chin Yang)

Camellia and Golden Pheasant.

Able to Tower Over Hsi-hai Peak.

Liu Hai-su chatted happily with museum director Ch'in Hsiao-i during his visit to the National Palace Museum. （photo by Wen Chin Yang）

Accompanied by Ch'in Hsiao-i, Liu examined a painting from the Ming dynasty at the museum and a copy. （photo by Wen Chin Yang）

The Myriad Ravines of Huang Shan Leap into view.

Kuang-ming Peak at Huang Shan.

As a gift to the National Museum of History, Liu completed an impromptu painting on the spot. （photo by Wen Chin Yang）