臺南美術史

Kuo Po-Chuan, Alley in Front of Kuan Ti Temple, 1929. Catalogue of the 2nd Taiten (Taiwan Art Museum).

Alley in Front of Kuan Ti Temple by Kuo Po-Chuan (1901-1974) was selected into the 3rd Taiten (Taiwan Art Exhibition) in 1929. The subject of the painting, the Kuan Ti Temple, is now the God Of War Temple in Tainan, and the view is the alleyway between the buildings across the temple and the temple’s “San Chuan Gate.” The distinctive perspective creates a sense of depth in the image, indicating the ideas of “painting from life” and Western perspective emphasized by the Taiten. There is vivid shadow cast by the temple at the intersection of the buildings. The architectural volume produced by “color planes” and the everyday scene under the searing sun are painting vocabularies informed by pleinairism. Another reference point regarding the context of the location is that the temple was also where activities of the Taiwan Cultural Association (臺灣文化協會) often took place. In 1929, Tsai Pei-Huo (蔡培火), a predecessor of Ko Po-Chuan, organized the “Pe̍h-ōe-jī [Church Romanization] Research Society” (白話字研究會) at the temple. After the split of the Taiwan Cultural Association, the Taiwanese People’s Party (民眾黨) moved the talks and newspaper reading club previously organized by the association to the temple’s Buddha Hall. The Taiwanese Labor Unions (臺灣工友總聯盟) had organized speeches at the location. Moreover, the New Taiwan Cultural Association (新文協) also moved its Tainan branch to in front of the temple to be the headquarter of anit-colonization movement, which seemed to echo Kuo’s anti-colonial tendency.

References:
Wang, Rocean (editor). Lumière: The Enlightenment and Self-Awakening of Taiwanese Culture. Taipei City: Museum of National Taipei University of Education, 2022.
Pan, Fan (editor). The Transparent Local Color: A Retrospective of Kuo Po-Chuan. Tainan City: Tainan Art Museum, 2019.

Kuo Po-Chuan
Kuo Po-Chuan (1901-1974) was born on Tatsung Street (now Jhongming Street in West Central District) in Tainan. He went to Japan to study painting in 1925, and was accepted into the Western-style Painting Department at Tokyo Fine Arts School in 1928, where he studied under Okada Saburōsuke (岡田三郎助, 1869-1939). From 1929 to 1930, Kuo’s works were selected for the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Taiten, among which Alley in Front of Kuan Ti Temple (關帝廟前的小巷, depicting the God of War Temple today) featured Tainan’s local scenery. Kuo had only participated in the Taiten three times. The reason might be that he had deliberately kept a distance from the public system during the period of Japanese rule. He adamantly refused to “teach the Japanese language, collect rations from the Japanese government, and paint propagandist pictures.” He also refused to join the “Tai-Yang Art Exhibition” (臺陽展), which showed his idiosyncrasy. In 1938, Kuo moved to Beijing and accepted an offer to teach at Beiping Art School (國立北平藝專) and Beiping Normal University (北平師範大學). During this period, he also became friends with the important Japanese painter Umehara Ryuzaburo (梅原龍三郎, 1888-1986) and painted in various locations in Beijing. This experience had helped shape his painting style. From 1943 to 1946, he completed multiple large-scale paintings on Xuan paper. After World War II, he moved back to Taiwan, and began teaching at the Department of Architecture at National Cheng Kung University. He had a strong feeling about Tainan and Kaohsiung being criticized as an art desert due to a lack of cultural and artistic events. So, Kuo founded the “Tainan Fine Arts Association” (臺南美術研究會) to promote art and served as its chairperson for over two decades. During this period, he also launched the initiative of establishing a Tainan Municipal Art Museum – a dream that was eventually fulfilled in 2019.

Reference
Lin, Mun-Lee (ed.). The Everlasting Bloom: Rediscovering Taiwanese Modern Art. Taipei City: Museum of National Taipei University of Education, 2021.