｜Artist Chen Ting-Shih(1915-2002) Image Source: Chen Ting-Shih Foundation

Chen Ting-Shih was inextricably tied to the trend of “abstraction” in Taiwanese modern art, for he sought to blend the oriental spirit into modern forms.² Demonstrating lifelong dedication to artistic creation, Chen was one of the most iconic artists in the history of Taiwanese modern art.

Born to a family of functionaries in Fujian in 1916, Chen suffered hearing loss in an accident at a tender age. Nevertheless, by dint of his family’s strong background in Chinese studies and his exposure in his early youth to Western realism advocated and introduced by Xu Bei-Hong, Chen was able to build a solid foundation in traditional Chinese poetry, calligraphy, and painting, as well as in Western realistic drawing and oil painting.

After moving to Taiwan, Chen worked as a librarian at the Provincial Taipei Library from 1948 to 1957. Influenced by Western modern and abstract art trends, he finally resigned from his official position to devote himself to artistic creation. Chen co-founded the “Chinese Modern Printmaking Association” in 1958 and joined the “Fifth Moon Group” in 1965. In this period, he published many abstract prints on chipboards and actively promoted the reform of abstract art.

 ｜Chen Ting-Shih, Dreaming in the Glacier #9, 1974, 63x63cm, Woodblock print on paper

Chen not only had his sui generis view on Chinese and Western modern abstract forms, but also devoted himself to 3D iron sculpture at the age of nearly seventy. He collected scrap metal parts from ship-breaking yards as his creative materials and welded them into abstract works, which made him a pioneer of welded sculpture in Taiwan. Art had been Chen’s lifelong companion. He participated in various exhibitions and won numerous awards at home and abroad. He died of illness at the age of eighty during the preparation for his solo exhibition at the Taipei Museum of Fine Arts in 2002. His presence in major exhibitions included “São Paulo Art Biennial” (1959/1961/1963/1965/1971), “Modern Prints Exhibition” (1959-1966), “Korean International Print Biennial” (1970/1972), “British International Print Biennial” (1972/1974), “Chen Ting-Shih Retrospective at Eighty” (1993, Provincial Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts), “Taipei Biennial” (1996), “Twentieth Century Metal Sculpture Exhibition” (1998-1999, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Calais / Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno), “Sound of Rarity: Chen Ting-Shih Memorial Exhibition” (2002, Taipei Fine Arts Museum), and “Asking the Heaven: Chen Ting-Shih Memorial Exhibition” (2005, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts). He was also the winner of the first prize of the “1st Korean International Print Biennial” (1970), the 8th Golden Goblet Award of the Art Society of China (1971), and the 6th Modern Painting Achievement Award of the Li Chun-Shan Foundation (1999). Chen’s 3D iron sculpture [Johnnie Walker], along with the works by international sculpture masters Eduardo Chillida and César Baldaccini, was included in the book Art of the 20th Century written by famous French art critic Jean Louis Ferrier, in which Chen appeared as the only Asian artist.

 ｜Chen Ting-Shih, Face to Face, 1980s, 80x39x20cm, Iron

Throughout his life, Chen had been involved in a wide range of artistic fields, including traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy, epigraphy, woodcut, abstract printmaking, oil painting, acrylic painting, and 3D iron sculpture. Of all these professional fields, his most prominent and praised achievements found expression in abstract printmaking and 3D iron sculpture.

Chen’s creative style evolved from abstract printmaking into 3D iron sculpture in terms of form. However, in terms of content, it maintained its essential qualities such as purity, stability, chaotic vastness, and majestic grandeur.⁵ Artist Lee Shi-Chi once commented: “As a modern artist par excellence, he still retained the timeless oriental sentiment. He blended tradition with modernity as well as realism with abstraction, hence the unique ‘Chen Ting-Shih style’.”⁶

1 Cheng Hui-Mei, God Roaming‧Beyond Objects‧Chen Ting-Shih (Taipei: Lion Art Co., Ltd., 2004), p. 87.

2 Huang Tsai-Lang, "Encountering the Immense Sound from the Inner Self," Chen Ting-Shih (1915-2002): Sound of Rarity (Taipei: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2002), p. 4.

3 Chu Ge, "Human Nature and Materiality: Chen Ting-Shih's Print and Sculpture Art," Chen Ting-Shih Art Works Continued (Taichung: Taichung Cultural Center, 1991), p. 120.

4 Liu Kao-Hsing, "Kaohsiung’s Iron Man – Chen Ting-Shih’s Iron Sculpture," Asking the Heaven: Chen Ting-Shih Memorial Exhibition (Kaohsiung: Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 2005), p. 34.

5 Kao Tsan-Hsing, "Quite Brilliance – Chen Ting-Shih’s Iron Sculpture," Asking the Heaven: Chen Ting-Shih Memorial Exhibition (Kaohsiung: Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 2005), p. 23.

6 Lee Shi-Chi, "Chen Ting-Shih – A Friendship Forged in Printmaking", Asking the Heaven: Chen Ting-Shih Memorial Exhibition (Kaohsiung: Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 2005), p. 33.

 ｜Chen Ting-Shih, Day and Night #79, 1983, 60x60cm, Woodblock print on paper

Chen Ting-Shih’s early woodcuts featured human figures and landscapes. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chen responded to the movement of “Saving the Nation with Art” under the pseudonym “Er-Shih.” After the end of the war, Chen came to Taiwan several times and continued to publish his works that expressed political criticism and pointed out social problems, which was nonetheless at odds with the social climate at that time. Following the February 28 massacre, Chen was once arrested. Subsequently, he became a public librarian and entered his silent library period.

In the 1950s, Taiwan was influenced by Western art trends, and a wave of modernity and abstraction swept over Taiwanese art scene, which prompted Chen, at the age of 42, to resign from his official position at the library to devote himself solely to artistic creation in 1957. The “Fifth Moon Group” and the “Eastern Painting Group” were founded in 1957 as well. Chen joined the “Chinese Modern Printmaking Association” in 1959, which marked a new stage in his artistic expression.

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The Use of Chipboards

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Using chipboards was one of the breakthroughs Chen Ting-Shih achieved in printmaking. He was not the first artist to create prints on chipboards, but he was the one who took it to extremes. Chipboards were made from bagasse and mostly used as partitions in buildings during Taiwan’s economic boom. Unlike delicate woodcuts, chipboards cannot be finely engraved due to their fragile nature. In his repeated attempts, Chen no longer used a carving knife but instead adopted the techniques of tearing, cutting, folding, and slicing to collage the chipboards like a jigsaw puzzle. The compositional expression of his works metamorphosed from “linearity” into “planarity” that continued in all directions, creating a more concise and vigorous spatial structure and form.⁴

Large-scale prints on chipboards cannot be made with machines but by manual rubbing only. Chen applied the printing ink on cotton paper with a roller. In the rubbing process, the collaged chipboards produced crack-like patterns on the white cotton paper like those in oracle bones, and the microgrooves on the prints created the effect of epigraphy and stele rubbing.

 ｜Chen Ting-Shih, Day and Night #84(partial), 1983, 92.5x92.5cm, Woodblock print on paper

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Geometric Patterns and Colors

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Chen Ting-Shih devoted himself entirely to modern printmaking. After almost five years of exploration and experimentation, he gradually evolved from the “linear,” “representational” expression of traditional woodcuts into the “planar,” “abstract” prints on chipboards. The subjects of his works also shifted from the criticism of the mundane world and the extolment of idylls to the lyricism and sustenance in the vast universe.⁷

The period from 1964 to the mid-1980s is considered to be the heyday of Chen’s abstract printmaking, foremost “Totem,” “Blow the Freezing Point,” “Will,” “Day and Night,” and “Dreaming in the Glacier.”

In terms of form, his abstract prints created in this period featured irregular quadrilaterals and circles symbolizing the sun and the moon. Arranged in intersection and juxtaposition, these geometric patterns bristle with cracks, and there are nicks around their edges. In terms of color, the compositions of these abstract prints comprised primarily black, white, red, gold, and blue. Chen initially used black and manually manipulated the variation of shades. Then he added red, gold, and blue to his works. The “blanks” amidst the geometric patterns have become important visual elements in these works as well.

The aforementioned qualities indicate the influence of Chinese calligraphy, oracle bones, epigraphy, and stele rubbing on Chen’s prints, including the arrangement of ink with charming effect, the use of quadrilaterals to experiment with epigraphy-like compositions, and the inspiration derived from the cracks and nicks in oracle bones and stele rubbing.

 ｜Chen Ting-Shih, Blow the Freezing Point #13(partial), 1985, 90x90cm, Woodblock print on paper

Chen trudged alone through the silent world and observed nature with mindfulness. His prints perform an aesthetic repetition of day and night, yin and yang, the sun and the moon, sky and sea, as well as life and death.⁹ He tried to depict the natural order of the vast universe in a purely abstract fashion, which shaped his aesthetic style as uninhibitedly majestic as vigorously imposing apart from reconciling consummation and deficiency. Artist Fang Chen-Ning commented: “Like the very initial impulse, the more primitive the prototype is, the more unsophisticated, concise, and uninhibited aesthetics there is. Chen Ting-Shih, as a seeker of the Way, entered the supreme realm of thinking.”¹⁰

1 Chu Ge, "Art Criticism of Chen Ting-Shih," Chen Ting-Shih Art Works Continued (Taichung: Taichung Cultural Center, 1991), p. 109.

2 Lee Shi-Chi, "Chen Ting-Shih – A Friendship Forged in Printmaking", Asking the Heaven: Chen Ting-Shih Memorial Exhibition (Kaohsiung: Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 2005), p. 28.

3 Lee Shi-Chi, "Chen Ting-Shih – A Friendship Forged in Printmaking", Asking the Heaven: Chen Ting-Shih Memorial Exhibition (Kaohsiung: Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 2005), p. 28.

4 Hsiao Chong-Ray, "The Graphic Artist Chen Ting-Shih in the Modern Painting Movement," Chen Ting-Shih (1915-2002): Sound of Rarity (Taipei: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2002), p. 33.

5 Cheng Hui-Mei, God Roaming‧Beyond Objects‧Chen Ting-Shih (Taipei: Lion Art Co., Ltd., 2004), p. 55-56.

6 Hsiao Chong-Ray, "The Graphic Artist Chen Ting-Shih in the Modern Painting Movement," Chen Ting-Shih (1915-2002): Sound of Rarity (Taipei: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2002), p. 33.

7 Lin Po-Shin, "The Cosmic Patterns and Cultural Implications of Chen Ting-Shih’s Modern Prints," Chen Ting-Shih (1915-2002): Sound of Rarity (Taipei: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2002), p. 59.

8 Hsiao Chong-Ray, "The Graphic Artist Chen Ting-Shih in the Modern Painting Movement," Chen Ting-Shih (1915-2002): Sound of Rarity (Taipei: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2002), p. 36.

9 Fang Zhen-Ning, "Communicating with the Spirit of Heaven and Earth -- Looking at the Works of Taiwanese Printmaker Chen Ting-Shih", Chen Ting-Shih Art Works Continued (Taichung: Taichung Cultural Center, 1991), p. 129.

10 Fang Zhen-Ning, "Communicating with the Spirit of Heaven and Earth -- Looking at the Works of Taiwanese Printmaker Chen Ting-Shih", Chen Ting-Shih Art Works Continued (Taichung: Taichung Cultural Center, 1991), p. 129.

11 Chu Ge, "Human Nature and Materiality: Chen Ting-Shih's Print and Sculpture Art," Chen Ting-Shih Art Works Continued (Taichung: Taichung Cultural Center, 1991), p. 120.

12 Fang Zhen-Ning, "Communicating with the Spirit of Heaven and Earth -- Looking at the Works of Taiwanese Printmaker Chen Ting-Shih", Chen Ting-Shih Art Works Continued (Taichung: Taichung Cultural Center, 1991), p. 129.

After moving to Taichung in 1980, Chen gradually shifted his creative focus onto 3D iron sculpture. He often presented his works in abstract forms, thereby expressing his aesthetic sense of spatial and structural freedom. He also utilized discarded materials to show his genuine affection for objects and the traces of his personal life.

Chen obtained his creative materials mainly from the ship-breaking yards in Kaohsiung. He often went to these ship-breaking yards to buy scrap metal parts. There were more than 200 ship-breaking yards in Kaohsiung at the pinnacle of this industry. Materials like scrap metal, boilers, propellers, and hinges piled up like a mountain. Chen once stated: “For the sake of convenience, the workers dismantle the ship and split the metal parts without any artistic plan. Being irregular though, the dismantled parts are rather aesthetically pleasing. Nothing is so valuable as serendipitous naturalness in art.”³ Chen collected his creative materials from those metal parts. As far as he was concerned, those damaged, cut, and compressed materials were more formally attractive. He was also reluctant to see the waste materials being destroyed because he cherished objects.

The five pieces of Chen’s 3D iron sculpture, namely [The Knot](1980s), [Face to Face](1980s), [Totem](1980s) [Nirvana](1983), and [Fortress](1987), are introduced as follows.

 ｜Chen Ting-Shih, The Knot(partial), 1980s, 29x21x45cm, Iron and wood

[The Knot](1980s) combines “wood” with “iron.” In terms of its form, a piece of driftwood is entangled with iron bars. A round iron pot carries the driftwood, serving as the stable base for the work. The iron bars emerging from the iron pot symbolize the growth of thoughts. The iron bars tie and pierce the driftwood, as if the deepest longings and desires were tightly bound. The overall roughness and simplicity of this work reveal a profound reflection on yearning and pursuit.

 ｜Chen Ting-Shih, Face to Face,1980s, 80x39x20cm, Iron

[Face to Face](1980s) is made of two iron plates standing face to face; one is rectangular while the other is spade-shaped. The rectangular iron plate was originally a barbecue grill. Retaining the handles on both sides, its shape not only has functional utility but also implies the power of protection. The spade-shaped iron plate is presented in an open, inclusive fashion, providing an atmosphere diametrically opposite to the former. Such a contrast echoes the title of this work. They act as formal complements to each other’s appearance and create a dialogue between different mental states. The two parties look at each other, ingeniously blending perseverance and conservatism with mildness and openness.

 ｜Chen Ting-Shih, Totem(partial), 1980s, 58x16x88cm, Iron

In the center of [Totem](1980s) is a thick, rusty piece of iron, on which hang a large wrench and a pair of pliers. On the left and right sides are sharpened plowshares whose symmetrical arrangement is reminiscent of a pair of wings. Different shapes of iron are stacked together to form a cross symbol, and the semicircular piece of iron behind it seems to be a halo, hence the “totem” in Chen’s mind.

The imbricated pieces of iron and readymades in [Totem] create a solemn and awe-inspiring atmosphere, as if taking part in a traditional sacred ritual of worshipping or paying tribute to ancestral spirits. In this work, Chen expertly maintained his sui generis creative style, displaying simplicity and earthiness through the consummate welding of objects.

 ｜Chen Ting-Shih, Nirvana(partial), 1983, 49x51x11cm, Iron and wood

[Nirvana](1983) features an erected round wooden chopping board with nine nails arranged in a square-shaped formation at its center. A rectangular iron plate is installed at the bottom as the stabilizing base. Chen preserved the traces of long-term use of this chopping board. In addition to the distortion of the circular body over time, the surface of this chopping board is rife with stains and cracks. Chen named this work [Nirvana], a title associated with Buddhist meditation.

A circle is a shape having neither beginning nor end, which is regarded as a symbol of the endless cycle of personal reincarnations. The nails in a square-shaped formation at the center of the chopping board suggest order and stability. It seems that Chen tried to strike a balance in such a cycle. This work also implies his quest for a state of freedom from all suffering, expecting to achieve enlightenment, relief, and autonomy, and to reach nirvana that transcends life, death, and the mundane world.

[Fortress](1987) is made of iron plates that are erected, welded, and bent. The discarded iron plates were cut, hammered, and welded by Chen, and each welded joint bore Chen’s meticulous conception and ingenious layout. This minimalist fortress oozes unique charm in its simplicity. It is not only a work resembling a bunker, but also a fortress in Chen’s mind, a symbol that upholds and safeguards his ideal.

1 Kao Tsan-Hsing, "Quite Brilliance – Chen Ting-Shih’s Iron Sculpture," Asking the Heaven: Chen Ting-Shih Memorial Exhibition (Kaohsiung: Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 2005), p. 23.

2 Kao Tsan-Hsing, "Quite Brilliance – Chen Ting-Shih’s Iron Sculpture," Asking the Heaven: Chen Ting-Shih Memorial Exhibition (Kaohsiung: Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 2005), p. 25.

3 Liu Kao-Hsing, "Kaohsiung’s Iron Man – Chen Ting-Shih’s Iron Sculpture," Asking the Heaven: Chen Ting-Shih Memorial Exhibition (Kaohsiung: Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 2005), p. 37.

4 Cheng Hui-Mei, God Roaming‧Beyond Objects‧Chen Ting-Shih (Taipei: Lion Art Co., Ltd., 2004), p. 100.

5 Cheng Hui-Mei, God Roaming‧Beyond Objects‧Chen Ting-Shih (Taipei: Lion Art Co., Ltd., 2004), p. 122.