Taiwan Today

Taiwan’s first maker of public statues laid a foundation for the art.
 

In 2016, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of master sculptor Pu Tian-sheng’s (蒲添生) death, National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei City exhibited his work in a new art gallery alongside sculpture by younger Pu family members and his Japanese mentor Fumio Asakura. The presence in the show of Pu’s Sunshine, a statue of a naked woman, was widely viewed as a response to the venue’s rejection of the same work over forty years ago due to its then-shocking nudity. That it can now be exhibited symbolizes the progress in public perception in Taiwan, according to art critic and historian Hsiao Chong-ray (蕭瓊瑞), who wrote the introduction for the exhibition catalog.
 

Pu was born to a picture framer in southern Taiwan’s Chiayi City and grew up under Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945). In 1931, Pu went to Japan and a year later entered Tokyo’s Imperial Art School, today known as Musashino Art University, where he studied painting and sculpture. Most influentially, in 1934 he came under the tutelage of Asakura, a pioneer of modern Japanese sculpture often compared to Auguste Rodin. In 1940, Pu’s statue Fisherman was selected for the prestigious Imperial Year 2600 Fine Art Exhibition, which included work by other young Taiwan sculptors studying in Japan like Huang Qing-cheng (黃清呈) and Chen Xia-yu (陳夏雨).
 

Back in Taiwan in 1941, Pu and Chen established a sculpture division in the Tai-yang Art Association formed in 1934 by painter Chen Cheng-po (陳澄波) together with some of the most prominent local or Taiwan-born Japanese artists. In its first year the group staged the annual Tai-yang Art Exhibition, which rivaled the colonial government-sponsored Taiwan Exhibition in content. Pu’s contributions to the art of sculpture in Taiwan also encompassed technical know-how and education. In 1945 while making a three-meter-tall statue of Sun Yat-sen, Pu set up a bronze foundry in Taipei, the first of its kind in postwar Taiwan, and introduced the technique of casting from clay that he learned in Japan. From 1949 to 1962, Pu taught school students, teachers and workers enrolled in a government-funded sculpture workshop that took place each July and August at what is now the campus of Taipei’s Fuxing Elementary School. Pu’s classes were the only place to learn sculpture techniques at a time when local educational institutions had yet to establish a formal training system for the medium, thus laying the foundation for further development of the art in Taiwan. Carrying on the artist’s legacy, Pu’s eldest son Pu Hao-ming (蒲浩明) and granddaughter Pu Yi-chun (蒲宜君) became sculptors, and together they have held three-generation exhibitions with Pu senior at home and abroad.

Family First

Ong Pek-ian (王白淵), a poet active in the Japanese colonial era and a pioneer writer on Taiwan fine art, praised Pu’s 1941 bust of his wife, commenting on the beautiful lines depicting the woman’s tranquil, balanced features. Founding president of Taiwan Art History Association Liao Hsin-tien (廖新田), who headed Taipei’s National Museum of History from 2018 to 2022, acquired the piece for the museum’s collection during his tenure. Hsiao feels that the busts Pu made of his mother and father in 1951 and 1954, respectively, transcend specific portraiture to convey the essence of parental nature. “The father’s plump-faced, honest look and the mother’s quiet, persevering expression are characteristics common to many Taiwan parents,” he said. In addition to immediate family, Pu sculpted a number of historical figures and local celebrities as his major source of income, and according to Hsiao, these pieces form the category most representative of his work. 

Hsiao characterizes Pu as a historic maker of images for being the first, most accomplished and most prolific human figure sculptor in modern Taiwan. However, Pu’s work is often overlooked due to public perception of his establishment subjects, he noted. Among these are The Poet, a portrait created in 1947 of leading figure in modern Chinese literature Lu Xun (魯迅‬), and a statue of Sun that was erected at Taipei Zhongshan Hall in 1949. It was one of the first public statues of the postwar era. By contrast, Liao says that Pu’s numerous sculptures of local worthies are ideal candidates for collection in a portrait gallery. “The likenesses of so many have stories closely linked with Taiwan’s historical and cultural development.”
 

Liao pointed out that, quite differently from these very specific cultural references, there is a universal aspect to Pu’s work, which shows in his depictions of the human body, like the 1981 work Sunshine. In the early 1980s, Pu began taking fewer commissions for commercial statues to spend more time on his own work from life models. Among the results, Slim and Graceful and Remembrance were selected for Paris Salon exhibitions in 1983 and 1984, respectively. The two pieces, together with Sunshine, now stand in a park next to Taipei’s Huashan 1914 Creative Park. In 1988, inspired by athletes at the Seoul Olympics, Pu created a series on gymnasts, showing the beauty of the human body in movement. The pieces are now part of collections held by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in the central city of Taichung and other galleries.
 

Pu was such a dedicated artist that he refused treatment for stomach cancer to complete his last work, a memorial statue of kindergarten teacher Lin Jing-juan (林靖娟), who died in 1992 saving pupils from a school bus fire. Pu died shortly after finishing the piece in 1996. Pu’s third son, Steven Paul (蒲浩志), helped with the very last stage of creation and was deeply moved by his father’s unwavering passion for art and the brave woman’s selfless spirit.

Accessible Art

Today the Pu Tian-sheng Sculpture Memorial Museum works to reconstruct and showcase Taiwan’s art history. It was established in 2010 by Paul after he retired from an engineering and construction group. His 31-year experience working in design and marketing was critical to the museum’s establishment and subsequent management. At the historic building once home to Pu’s family, Paul said, “We seek to chronicle the experience of my father and other prominent local artists who studied overseas and chose to return to practice their art in Taiwan.” The museum strives to give equal rights to all to enjoy art and cultural resources, he added. In 2021 it organized “Tracing the Roots through Sculpture: Pu Tian-sheng’s 110th Birthday Memorial Exhibition,” which took place at S.Y.S. Memorial Hall. The P.T.S. museum’s programs also include some designed for students at Taipei School for the Visually Impaired to make and enjoy sculpture. Unlike most art institutions, the museum even allows visitors to touch the sculptures.
 

Pu and his compatriot artists are the forerunners of Taiwan’s unique cultural creative identity. “Pu’s lifelong dedication to creation and his large body of work gave a profound, long-lasting influence to postwar Taiwan sculpture,” Liao said. That influence is still going strong with a prospective exhibition in France during the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw