Taiwan Today

Throughout his career, veteran painter Hsieh Hsiao-de (謝孝德), 75, has remained committed to his artistic ideals and gained considerable recognition for his thought-provoking creations. “A good piece of work not only offers visual appeal, but also reflects its place and time, disclosing elements of our society for public consideration,” he says. “As well, it communicates an artist’s attitudes and feelings.”

As Hsieh has found out, however, the public does not always welcome such revelations. His 1975 oil painting Gift, the first of a number of works he produced with this title, generated heated debate in Taiwan at the time about the line between art and pornography. The piece depicts the naked buttocks and legs of a woman with a red ribbon wrapped around her left ankle. “The female nude was intended to convey a satirical message about the prevalence of the sex trade in local bars at the time, but it was considered pornography by some people,” Hsieh recalls. “Today, these kinds of satirical works are no longer so controversial, which shows progress in public attitudes toward art.” Gift is now in the collection of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

Hsieh established his name in the local art scene in the 1970s not only because of the controversial subject matter of some of his artworks, but also due to his pioneering efforts to promote neorealism and later photorealism. In 1975, he published a book to introduce the true-to-life art form, which had begun to gain popularity in the United States and Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The artist grew up in a poor farming household in northern Taiwan’s Taoyuan County, now Taoyuan City. He demonstrated a talent for drawing from an early age, winning the top prizes in several local and international art competitions during his childhood and adolescence. His impoverished upbringing motivated him to study and work hard. After earning a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1965 from National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) in Taipei, he accepted a teaching job at the university, which he held until his retirement in 2005, while still managing to find time to create artworks and participate in exhibitions.

Through diligence born of a strong desire to succeed, Hsieh soon excelled in sketching and oil and watercolor painting. During the 1970s, he was invited to represent Taiwan at international exhibitions in Brazil, France, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He also obtained government grants to travel to New York and Paris to conduct research on modern art in 1973 and 1974 respectively. Over the course of his career, his work has been included in exhibitions in Taiwan, Europe, Japan, mainland China and the United States, as well as collected by southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA), the National Museum of History in Taipei, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung, central Taiwan, and by numerous private individuals. Artwork by Hsieh has been sold at international auction houses including Christie’s, Sotheby’s and the Ravenel International Art Group.

Hsiao Tsung-huang (蕭宗煌), chief secretary of the Ministry of Culture (MOC) and former director of the KMFA, says Hsieh introduced several new artistic concepts and styles that he learned overseas to Taiwan. “Hsieh’s promotion of neorealism, with its emphasis on social realism in art, happened to coincide with the emergence of a grassroots literary movement exploring local themes such as the lives of ordinary people, so his ideas were well received by many fellow artists,” Hsiao says. “Moreover, his efforts helped encourage local artists to explore international trends.”

The realistic painting style that Hsieh advocated has had a lasting impact on later generations of Taiwanese artists, including major contemporary painters Wu Tien-chang (吳天章) and Lu Hsien-ming (陸先銘), Hsiao says. “I’m impressed with Hsieh’s works, which display a high level of sophistication and are contemporary in their social implications,” he says.

Lin Chang-te (林昌德), a professor in NTNU’s Department of Fine Arts, points out that the photorealistic images Hsieh created were accessible to the public and contained elements of social criticism. The NTNU professor has also noticed significant changes in Hsieh’s style and subject matter over time. In his early art career in the mid-1960s, Hsieh created works filled with a sense of bleakness by delving into his personal experiences and painting with dark colors. “Hsieh’s early works in oils, with their thick, emotive brushstrokes, capture the mood or plight of a poor family,” Lin says.

By the mid-1970s, however, Hsieh had started to address political and social issues in his works and they became more realistic. “His later pieces, a result of his precise observations of social phenomena, attracted public attention,” Lin says. “Gift, for example, was a startling commentary on the objectification of women in society.”

Since Hsieh’s retirement from teaching and relocation to a rural town in northern Taiwan’s Miaoli County, the painter has largely focused on depicting local landscapes with a brighter palette. “Living in the countryside allows Hsieh to draw inspiration from the beauty of nature and that probably affects his perspective on life and the style of his art,” Lin says. “His frequent use of soft colors and wet-on-wet blending techniques add simple elegance and romantic tones to his watercolor landscapes, which are a visual delight.”

The MOC’s chief secretary Hsiao has also noticed the artist’s stylistic development. “In recent years, he has become less critical and tended to seek peace of mind by painting serene landscapes. Whatever his subject matter, Hsieh’s creations catch the viewer’s eye due to his exceptional painting skills,” he says.

Lin attributes the artist’s successes to his untiring hard work throughout his long career as a painter. Hsieh had to take on several part-time jobs to help support his family and clear his father’s debts while he was at university, the professor says. “The painter has set a good example for young people by demonstrating that anyone willing to put in the necessary effort can work their way out of poverty and achieve their goals,” he says.

Huang Chin-lung (黃進龍), dean of NTNU’s College of Arts, says Hsieh stood out in the mid-1970s for his enterprise in adopting a realistic painting style ahead of many of his peers. He also chose political or social subject matter that most others did not dare to address.

“Hsieh’s broad vision and confrontational realism, which are critical and reflective, have made him one of the leading figures in realist art in Taiwan,” Huang says. “I admire his commitment to painting diverse subjects and experimenting with color, form and technique. His creative process is always evolving.”

The artist is a man of many talents ranging from painting and sculpting to singing and sports, a fact that has made him a legendary figure in Taiwan’s art scene, Huang says. His strong will and physical strength are key factors in his continuing to create artworks, some of which are very large, into his mid-70s, the dean says.

In explaining his motivation to promote realism, Hsieh says that at the time, local painting techniques needed improvement. “Representational art is an important foundation for all visual art because it depends upon an artist’s proficiency in drawing, depiction of light, use of color and overall composition—skills which underpin numerous forms of visual art,” he says. “By drawing objects from life in meticulously accurate detail, artists can learn the tools they need to go on to express whatever they wish.”

In the 1960s, a number of artists in Europe and the United States began to use slide photography to record their subjects and then project the image onto a canvas to outline it in pencil before painting it, or at least use the image as a reference. Hsieh engaged in a similar pursuit, but insists that artists should not rely too heavily on the practice. “Photographs can capture moments and record scenes with clarity, sometimes beyond what one could have seen at the time,” the painter explains. “Still, they should be used only as reference materials. Artists need to create their own visual language based on their craftsmanship and individual creativity.”

In recent decades, Hsieh, like many artists, has incorporated images of new technology into his work. “Over the past few years, I’ve embraced postmodernism and been in constant search of fresh ways to create art by depicting elements of popular culture,” the painter says. “I hope to produce compelling images that are not only visually pleasing, but also resonate with viewers of all backgrounds.”

Besides establishing a gallery to exhibit his artwork, the veteran painter has three studios in his neighborhood, allowing him to paint and store canvases of various sizes. These include two oversized paintings, Sacred Tree Family and Sun Moon Lake, both created in 2005, which measure 2.1 meters by 10 meters each.

“I keep on painting because I enjoy it and want to share my love of art with others. Plus, I like to challenge myself to make larger works to demonstrate the magnificence of Taiwan’s landscapes or better illustrate other complex subjects,” Hsieh says. “I aspire to stay at the forefront of artistic experimentation and new art trends.”

Write to Kelly Her at kher@mofa.gov.tw