A retrospective exhibition of artist Yim Mau-kun (冉茂芹) "Looking Back on History: Yim Mau-kun at 80 (歷史回望－冉茂芹八十回顧展)" is currently on view at the National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. Artworks from different periods of Yim's art journey will be displayed at Bo Ai Gallery and on the first floor of Cultural Corridors until February 6.
A total of 74 significant works of Yim at the exhibition include paintings "Taiwan's Forefathers (先民渡海)," "Nuwa Mending the Sky (女媧補天)," "Sunset in the West (西域殘陽)," and "Emperor Guangxu and Consort Zhen (光緒與珍妃)," which pay tribute to and commemorate forefathers. In Yim's opinion, art is an extension of life, he renders artistic reality through composition, ambiance, selective details, and brush strokes.
Yim is known as an artist and an educator who specializes in realistic-style oil paintings and has won top prizes in art competitions at home and abroad. His art style is highly influenced and inspired by Renaissance artists as well as Russian and European Realists in the 19th and 20th centuries. Born in 1942 in Changde city of Hunan province, China, Yim graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1965. He moved to Hong Kong in 1980, then settled in Taipei after he received an enthusiastic response to his art exhibition. Yim has been invited to art academies and organizations of art education in the United States, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan over the years.
"Looking Back on History: Yim Mau-kun at 80" reflects on Yim's life with art. The exhibition not only looks in retrospect at historical figures with paintings but also at the artist himself. Yim is committed to pursuing artistic achievement in realistic art. While devoting himself to art education, he is still improving his techniques and continuously experimenting with new ways of expression and approaches to realistic art.