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Untitled 37

  • Date 1993
  • Dimensions 40 x 25 cm
  • Media Technology Black and white photograph, hand-coloured with various inks
  • Type Photography
Artist

  • LI Yuan-Chia   (1929 - 1994)

  • Li Yuan-chia was born in Guangxi Province. In 1951 he began studying in the Arts Department of Provincial Taiwan Teachers College (now known as the Department of Art Education at National Taiwan Normal University), along with classmates Hsiao Chin and Chen Dao-ming. In 1952 he joined Li Chung-sheng’s art studio on An-tung Street, and in 1957 formed the Ton-Fan Group with Li Chung-sheng’s other students, where he promoted modern art. In 1963, after moving to Italy, he joined the International Punto Movement lead by Hsiao Chin and other artists, and after 1966 settled in England. Li Yuan-chia created the “Universe Point” series. He often framed his works into traditional Chinese folding books whose leaves could each open one by one. He incorporated calligraphy strokes and writing styles in his works, and used different forms of points and lines to describe a new abstract language and debate the dualism of motion/stillness, fiction/truth, which approached the humor of Zen. Li would sometimes paste or inlay metal or wood into his works, then add color to create a bas-relief effect. He only used four colors in his paintings, and each color had its own symbolic meaning: black represented beginnings and endings; red represented blood and life; gold represented nobility; white represented purity. Li once said in a poem “a point is the beginning of everything, and the end of everything. If you really understand this idea, you will deeply feel the greatness of the universe and the value of your own existence.” “A point” also represents Li Yuan-chia’s life experience, that of a wandering, lonely spirit living in an ever-changing era.