Chen Shu-ming (Chinese: 陳世明)(1948–) is a Taiwanese artist who makes creations in various media, including sketches, ink wash paintings, oil paintings, mixed media and photography. He was active in the art world in the 1980s in Taiwan, has abundant exhibition experience, and has served as a professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the Taipei National University of the Arts.
Art studying history
Chen Shu-ming was born in Xizhou Township, Changhua County in 1948. He developed an interest in painting at a young age, and learned sketching and watercolor painting from Chen Cheng, a teacher in Siluo Junior High School. From 1967 to 1970, he studied in the Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Academy of Arts (now National Taiwan University of Arts), where he learned from senior Taiwanese artists such as Lee Tze-fan, Yang Sanlang, Li Mei-shu, Hong Rui-lin, and Chen Ching-jung.
After graduating from the National Taiwan Academy of Arts, Chen Shu-ming went to Spain to study at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Spanish: Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando) from 1973 to 1976. He was influenced by the legacy of Spanish art, including Lopez (Spanish: Antonio Lopez-Garcia), Tàpies (Catalan: Antoni Tàpies) and Miró (Catalan: Joan Miró i Ferrà).
After graduating, he went on to study at the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1977, and returned to Taiwan in the same year when he devoted himself to Taiwanese art world with continuous creations and art education. From 1984 to 2013, he taught at the Department of Fine Arts, National Institute of the Arts (now Taipei National University of the Arts).
Art style
Chen Shu-ming's early works from 1983 to 2003 can be divided into two main styles. One is pencil sketching, which is characterized by "exquisite sketching", using pencil to depict plants, water and rocks in a precise and delicate style, while the layout presents a sense of silence and elegance, and is ethereal and clean. The other is the abstract geometric series of paintings, in which geometric color blocks are arranged and combined on the canvas with simple and bright hues, and supplemented by collage creation, emphasizing the reconfiguration of space.
Since 2004, he has dedicated himself to the creation of photography, focusing on the transformation and convergence of time and space. Each work is a combination of several photographs superimposed and reconstructed to create a colorful image.