「元氣‧淋漓——人間90莊喆特展」展覽導言

莊喆（1934-）出生於中國北京，其父親為北京故宮博物院古物館第一科科長莊嚴（1899-1980），來臺後成為臺北故宮博物院副院長，被譽為「文物的守護者」。1935年，莊嚴奉調故宮南分院，舉家隨即南下。1937年七七事變，舉家隨父親押解故宮文物南遷，輾轉到達貴州安順。1944年，因戰事所及故宮文物再次遷移至四川；1946年二戰結束，故宮文物於1月運抵重慶，隔年抵返南京。1948年12月，因國共內戰，故宮文物再次遷移，並於12月26抵臺。莊喆隨文物先抵基隆，隔年抵臺中，並於1950年隨故宮文物遷至臺中霧峰北溝，長達15年。霧峰是莊喆在華人世界渡過最穩定且最久的地方，仿如他的故鄉。

莊喆少年時期在不斷搬遷歲月中度過，隨父母守護文物之餘，途中的山川輝映、人物風采，亦一一注入莊喆的心靈。進入臺灣師範大學美術系後，莊喆於1959年加入「五月畫會」。他長於思辨，耐於枯寂，從文學、哲學、美術史的摸索當中不斷潛行發展，意氣風發，成為藝壇新銳。

莊喆的藝術蛻變醞釀於1960年代晚期到1970年代初期，其中最大的轉折點為1966年夏天至1968年前往歐美考察藝術的一年期間，使得莊喆對於藝術的看法大為轉變。他嚮往專業藝術家的探索之旅，最終決定赴美潛心創作。1973年開啟隱居十四年的安娜堡市田園生活，1986年再次返回闊別已久的鄉土，在國立藝術學院客座一年。這段時間，莊喆不斷發表自己對於藝術的觀點，成為他發表文章的第二次高峰時期，也是他對於初期藝術觀點的實踐與轉化的成果。1987年，莊喆把工作室遷至哈德遜河畔，開展哈德遜河時期；1994年，又將畫室遷移到紐約市，開啟曼哈頓時期，並更加反省自身創作。千禧年後，他透過古代作品，創作出「柏岩變奏」系列、「十六羅漢」系列及「雪舟破墨山水變奏」系列，透過文徵明、貫休、雪舟泯滅東西與古今的區隔，獲得嶄新面目。此後，莊喆的創作呈現獨遊太虛的蒼茫感。他深刻思索，透過繪畫追尋紛然表象底層的精神內涵，逐漸又回到早年心所嚮往宋代繪畫精神的追求，從空靈的氣象更加蒼茫渾厚。中國審美精神強調內在心靈的厚度，莊喆的作品從空靈的灑脫進入到心靈深處的蒼茫感，成為戰後中國年輕一代畫家追求現代抽象畫中的代表畫家。

莊喆幼年跟隨護持故宮文物的父親輾轉神州南北，少年時期落腳臺灣，直到1972年遷移美國。經歷數十年的創作生涯，東西古今文明已容納於胸臆；莊喆的創作意志始終如一，試圖創造出屬於融匯東西方美學的現代抽象繪畫。

霧峰，是他於臺灣逗留最久的地方，莊喆於此渡過高中、大學、出國訪問前的歲月。此次歸鄉特展，乃是莊喆離鄉五十餘年，初次在臺灣中部舉行大型特展。「元氣・淋漓——人間90莊喆特展」，依照空間規劃為6大展區，向觀眾呈現莊喆數十年來遊歷東西方的藝術創作成就。莊喆巧妙運用拼貼、書寫，營造詩意視覺，造像系列凝視情感流露，於山水畫中注入生命氣息，各具風情，凸顯其繪畫深邃內涵。本次特展深入其藝術核心，呈現莊喆獨特的視覺詩篇及他於創作當中探索文明與生命的歷程。


CHUANG Che (1934-) was born in Peiping (now Beijing), China. His father, CHUANG Yan (1899-1980), was the Chief of the 1^st Section, Gallery of Antiquities, Palace Museum in Peiping, who became the Deputy Director of the National Palace Museum in Taipei after coming to Taiwan and was hailed as the Guardian of Artifacts. In 1935, upon reassigned to the Nanjing Branch of the Palace Museum, Chuang Yan relocated his family to south of China. In 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident broke out. The entire family followed Chuang Che’s father as he escorted the artifacts of the Palace Museum southward, winding up arriving at Anshun, Guizhou. In 1944, due to the impact of war, they moved the artifacts again to Sichuan. In 1946, after the World War II ended, the artifacts of the Palace Museum were transported to Chongqing in January and returned to Nanjing in the following year. In December 1948, owing to the Chinese Civil War, the artifacts of the Palace Museum were relocated yet again, arriving in Taiwan on December 26. Chuang Che arrived at Keelung first along with the artifacts, and to Taichung the following year. Then, in 1950, he moved to Beigou, Wufeng, Taichung, along with the artifacts of the Palace Museum, where he dwelled for 15 years. Wufeng was the place Chuang Che stayed the most stably and longest in the Chinese-speaking world, as if it were his hometown.

Chuang Che had been relocating throughout his youth. While he followed his parents in guarding the artifacts, the charms of landscapes, and the demeanors of individuals, encountered along the way all seeped into his mind. After enrolled in the Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, Chuang joined the Fifth Moon Art Group in 1959. Well-versed in dialectic thinking and patient in solitude, Chuang ceaselessly developed in low profile amidst his exploration of literature, philosophy, and art history, evolving exuberantly as an emerging star in the art scene.

Chuang Che’s artistic metamorphosis dawned in the late 1960s to the early 1970s, with the biggest pivotal point being the year he went to Europe and America for art study from the summer of 1966 to 1968, which hugely changed his perspective with art. Aspiring for an exploratory journey of professional artist, he made up his mind to go to the United States and devote himself in artistic creation. 1973 marked the beginning of his pastoral life in retreat at Ann Arbor for 14 years. In 1986, Chuang returned to his long-lost homeland, serving as a visiting professor at the National Institute of the Arts for one year. In the meantime, Chuang Che constantly published his views on art, marking the second peak of his writing career, as the result of the practice and conversion of his early artistic perspectives. In 1987, Chuang Che moved his studio to the riverside of the Hudson River, entering the “Hudson Period.” In 1994, he moved his studio again to New York City, unveiling the “Manhattan Period,” wherein he engaged in a deeper reflection on his art practice. After the millennium, inspired by ancient works, he produced the Rock & Cypress Variation series, the Sixteen Lohans series, and the Variation on Shesshu’s Broken Ink Landscape series. Through Wen Zhengming, Guanxiu, and Shesshu, he erased the lines between the East and the West, as well as the past and the present, giving birth to whole new outlooks. Since then, Chuang Che’s works exuded a sense of immensity of cosmos roaming in solitude. In a profound contemplation, the artist inquired into the spiritual essence beneath chaotic appearance. Gradually returning to the pursuit of the painting zeitgeist in the Song Dynasty he had aspired for in the early years, Chuang imbued ethereal phenomena with a more potent sense of immensity. The Chinese aesthetics stresses on the wealth of inner spirit. Chuang Che’s oeuvre evolved from ethereal detachment into immensity deep down the soul, elevating himself as an iconic painter among the post-war younger generation of Chinese artists in pursuit of modern abstract painting.

Following the footsteps of his father escorting the artifacts of the Palace Museum across the vast territory of China in his childhood, Chuang Che settled in Taiwan as a teenager, until moving to the U.S. in 1972. Through decades of artistic creation, he has imbibed civilizations from the past to date, in the East and the West. Chuang consistently stays true to his artistic volition, striving to produce the modern abstract painting with the Eastern and Western aesthetics fused as one.

Wufeng was the place Chuang Che dwelled the longest in Taiwan, where he spent his years of senior high school, university, and the time before traveling abroad. This special exhibition of homecoming is his first large-scale exhibition thrown in the central Taiwan after away from home for over 5 decades. “Vivacity‧Overflowing——Chuang Che at 90” is divided into 6 sections in line with the spatial layout. The exhibition showcases Chuang Che’s artistic achievements over decades of traveling the East and the West. Artfully leveraging collage and calligraphy, the artist renders poetic visuals. Chuang crystalizes outpouring emotions in his figurative series, and breathes life into the landscape series, for each to exhibit charms unique to their own and shed light on the profound essence of the artist’s painting. The special exhibition delves into the core of Chuang’s art, presenting his distinct visual poetry as well as his exploratory journey of civilizations and lives in artworks.