Taiwan Today

Wang Lan has been hailed by no less an authority than Lin Yutang as an artist who is truly modern and truly Chinese. On these pages are examples of his vivid Chinese opera paintings that began on the mainland many years ago and have continued in Taiwan. Mr. Wang, who com­bines the skills of painting and writing (as did many of the ancients), is executive director of the Chinese Center' of International P.E.N. Born in Hopei, he took his box of watercolors to the theater to capture the wonderful colors and the dashing sweep and action of the Chinese opera. War came to China when he was only 17. As a freedom fighter, he turned to fiction, and his "Blue and Black" has been a worldwide best seller.

 

 

Once in Taiwan, Wang Lan was able to resume his Chinese opera paintings while continuing with writ­ing and other subjects for brush­work. As Lin Yutang has put it, he then found underneath the exuberance of his vision a mature control that allowed him to seize upon "only that which assumes form and is significantly beautiful." Wang's Chinese opera paintings rely on suggestion rather than minute detail to convey the u­nique world of the Chinese theater. As Dr. Lin has said, this is "art of sublimation, which makes im­portant use of what is not there." Works by Wang Lan are found in the David Rockefeller Collection and the permanent collection of the Museum of National History in the Republic of China. Wang is chairman of the Chinese Watercolor Society and on the rolls of societies in Hawaii and Great Britain. In olden times, many of the great Chinese painters were also poets and calligraphers. In modern times, not so many have been novelists and especially not of books that were translated into many other languages and dramatized for the stage and the screen. Wang Lan is a modern but also representative of old China.

 

 

 

 

If you can't see Chinese opera live, one of the best substitutes is to examine Wang Lan's paintings closely. He captures not only the color but the movement and the dramatic intensity. These pictures sing for themselves.