In Taiwan's arts community there's a very special group called the 57 Society. Its members are all classmates from the Class of the Year 57 of the ROC calendar (1968) from the Department of Fine Arts at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). That class was jam-packed with talent, and many of its members have remained active in the arts since graduation. Every few years they hold a large exhibition. This is partly to renew old friendships, and partly to keep their competitive edge. Everyone is an insider, and can tell at a glance how the others have been progressing. As a result this unique exhibition is a popular subject among artists.

Even among the well-known painters of the Class of 57, Dai Wu-kuang comes in for particular respect. He has natural talent but also works hard. He has a broad and deep understanding of artistic theory, and is able to combine theory with practice. He often says that there is a clear difference between craft and art-craft is skill, art is wisdom. Although he comes from the days when the Department of Fine Arts did not ask students to specialize and therefore gave them a sound grounding in all technical aspects, Dai's inner world in fact comes from outside of painting, from what the early-19th century painter and scholar Lu Yanshao recommended: "four parts calligraphy, three parts reading, and only three parts for painting."

Realizing the idea of "achieving the concept in mind before putting brush to paper," in recent years Dai's skill at flower and bird painting has become such that he can simply follow his instincts and produce excellent work. No matter whether it is a xieyi scroll executed with only a few impressionistic strokes of the brush, or a detailed gongbi sketch filled with the spirit of modern rationality, all are compositions that astonish and impress. Any addition would be superfluous, any subtraction would leave something wanting, completely realizing the idea that he constantly emphasizes of emptiness and substance interacting to give rise to one another. Painting is not simply transferring some subject matter to the canvas, but is the world that the painter sees in his mind's eye, and his reaction to beauty, expressed through the brush and ink. Only paintings with "soul" can move people and cause them to feel delight.

Hakka style

Dai is a classic example of someone who grew up in a Hakka village. He has a naivety and a down-home sincerity combined with adherence to principle and determination-the so-called "stiff-neck spirit." He liked painting even as a child, and was fortunate enough to receive praise and encouragement from a middle school arts teacher who had himself studied under a renowned Japanese watercolorist. This gave him the opportunity to head north to study fine arts at Taipei Teachers College. He still recalls how when he was in school his family was most worried about his coming home on vacations, because they would have to scrape up some money to give to him to take back to Taipei. Since the only cash income for most farm families at that time was to sell a few chickens, he can still clearly recall the image of his parents going all around trying to sell chickens.

It's unusual that a child from a poor family like himself should achieve such considerable status in the painting community. Even more noteworthy is that even when the craze for gallery openings hit Taiwan in the late 1980s, he could maintain the purity of his art and his insistence on painting for its own sake.

"In fact I did sign a contract with a gallery to provide two canvases per month for NT$60,000 a month at a time when teaching in school only paid NT$40,000, so it was really seductive," admits Dai.

The problem was that from the moment he signed the contract, he was unable to produce a single thing. Each time he set up to work, his mind would be cluttered up with questions about the kinds of paintings collectors wanted so that he wouldn't cause the gallery to suffer a loss. "I felt spiritually empty, and finally understood what it meant to 'sell out'; it was a very sad feeling."

Of course this venture with the gallery soon collapsed, and he had to pay a year's salary in compensation. Later, a gallery owner who thought that the fad for art with local, and especially rural, themes was at its peak, encouraged him to hold an exhibition. But his paintings never captured the attention of the market, and after a few exhibitions which only had a few buyers, he felt disappointed and frustrated. Fortunately his teacher encouraged him to carry on, "to paint only for yourself and for no one else." From this point on he deeply identified with the remark by Kant "art is an inner satisfaction that has relevance to none, and no concern for anything else" and also with the primitive motive for creativity expressed in Chinese philosophy as inner clarity and by Zhuangzi as the Taoist philosophy of acting "without deliberate purpose." Finally he could work as he wished without obstacles and achieve his later breakthroughs.

Looking back over the more than four decades of Dai's painting career, we can see how he has grown in his artistic life to reach his outstanding level of accomplishment of today.

Even before testing into the Department of Fine Arts at Taipei Teachers College in 1958, he received guidance and instruction from his middle school teacher. While studying at TTC, he had his own way of learning: "I remember once there was an exhibition of Lan Yin-ting's work. Every day I skipped class to go see it and tried to mimic his style," says Dai, recalling his tremendous passion for absorbing all the aesthetic elements and techniques he could.

Learning to be free

Besides attending formal classes, he also studied with Chiang Yung-chung, who was the favorite pupil of the great master of Chinese painting Shao You-hsuan. Clearly he had a great affection for Chinese painting and watercolors. Although Dai later came to specialize in brush-and-ink paintings of flowers and birds, he could never forget his fondness for watercolors. In fact, most of the rural scenes that he depicted were executed realistically using layering of watercolors. This gave his paintings great richness, lively subject matter, and made them close to life.

After entering NTNU in 1964, he became even more thirsty for knowledge and had greater opportunities to meet and learn from the reigning masters of Chinese and Western styles of the time.

It was then that he really learned the meaning of freedom of expression. "It was because of the specialized training that I received at NTNU that the expression 'style' began to circulate in my head. My teacher Chang Te-wen told me that my paintings were well-executed and beautiful, but that it would be better if the work was a little less polished, and even better if it could actually be somewhat ugly."

After graduating from NTNU he began teaching in high school, continuing his pursuit of pure art. He joined the Wen Hsing Painting Society, formed in 1979 by Chang Te-wen and made up of Chang's students from many years at NTNU. Here Dai came into close association with many of the painters who are now among the most established figures in the art world. As a result he began to more actively pursue a break from tradition, and move toward creating a unique style of his own. That he has been able to do so amazingly quickly and to bring into play the subtle use of space and substance is due to two factors: exploration of Chinese and Western painting theory, and the comprehension he gained from seeing the work of modern brush-and-ink painters who came under Western influence but created their own style.

He has described his breakthrough in the following terms: "I saw a lot of works by painters like Pan Tien-shou, Li Ku-chan, Cheng Shih-fa, Li Ko-jan, and Shih Lu, and a came to understand how important it was to have freedom of thought and expression in painting. I also realized the compatibility of calligraphy, poetry, content, and carving, and how together they express the spirit of Chinese painting."

The painting theory that has had the most impact on Dai is from Shih Tao's Comments on Painting: "An upright spirit in a sea of ink / Appearance renewed on the canvas / Life emerging from the tip of a brush / Light emitted from the midst of murkiness." These four lines conceptually opened the way for him to the spirit of Chinese brush-and-ink painting. Moreover, these ideas fit right in with his idea of taking subject matter from life, from the rural scenes that he remembered from childhood. Since accepting these ideas he has enjoyed greater creative space, and everything is a suitable subject for painting.

Getting by giving up

One of the reasons he has been able to effectively grasp the concept of "emptiness and substance give birth to one another" is thanks to the painting theory of Dan Zhongguang of the Qing dynasty. Of particular importance are these few sentences that capture the essence of Dan's thinking: "It's naturally difficult to search for nothing, yet when the substance is clearly defined you see the emptiness. It's impossible to paint the spirit, yet when reality is reduced to its essence the spirit will be revealed. A painting that is chaotic and busy is largely superfluous. Only when emptiness and reality are arranged properly will the idea of the picture extend beyond the painting." Dai's work since the 1990s can all be interpreted through these ideas-the simplicity of his compositions, the variations in the shade of ink, and the deft use of space.

In "My Concepts for Painting" Dai has summarized his artistic outlook into six fundamental points: (1) Only with a carefree creative attitude and profound learning can one achieved a high tone of expression. (2) Emptiness is the essential spirit of Chinese painting. (3) Dare to create contradictions; only then you will find something meaningful. (4) You must give up in order to get. (5) Record your own feelings and experiences. (6) Take tradition as the basic sustenance, and use Western art to nurture Chinese art.

Most great artists have attained their unique positions by continually giving things up. This is equally true of Dai Wuguang. From Chinese painting to watercolors to graphic design to carving, there's nothing he cannot do. And within Chinese painting, he once dedicated himself to detailed sketching so as to train his patience. He has also used heavy colors and ink to do jinshi ("metal and rock") style paintings in order to test his own ability and determination. He's not incapable of doing landscape paintings with brush and ink either, but that is not his emotional world. What he loves most are still the scenes of his youth: sunlight in the fields, lilies by the pond, ducks on the water, chicks searching for food, birds on a branch, the family cat in a long hallway or sleeping under a table.... When you see his paintings, you are drawn into the artist's world, and can linger in a leisurely way and forget the mundane world.

The pursuit of art is like the pursuit of the ultimate, and knows no boundaries. Dai Wu-kuang has continually maintained his honesty, modesty and ability to reassess his own work. He feels that even after 30 years of creating he's still "crossing the river by groping for stones." As for the future, he will still work in the direction of combining painting with thought, and we look forward to even greater delights from him.

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Dai Wu-kuang, a man of no pretensions, has a library of casual elegance. It is the best environment for his "carefree creativity." (photo by Pu Hua-chih)

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Giant Elephant's Ear 33x132 cm (2001) Dai painted this after seeing one of these plants in the mountains. The composition shows deft use of space; it is representative of his recent work.

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Gentlemen Discussing the Dao 89x97 cm (2001) In this composition by Dai the figures create a sense of space and of allegory; it is a classic work by a modern literatus.

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In Praise of Blooming Lilies 79x54 cm (1997) Dai's watercolors show real character; the composition and lighting in this work are excellent.

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(opposite page) Birds, An Old Tree, A Setting Sun 120x124 cm (2001) This is also a remarkable work with an elevated mood.

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Dai is also a respected carver, and has collected nearly one hundred seals.