A song of nativist aesthetics and post-war art
Shiy De-jinn (席德進, 1923 - 1981) was a late nativist painter known for his unique visual vocabulary derived from the cultures and landscapes of Taiwan.
Born in Sichuan Province in 1923, Shiy was a prominent figure among the post-war artists who crossed the strait and adopted Taiwan as their homeland. In the thirty-some years living in Taiwan upon making the move in 1948, he sought to inject new vitality and thought into classic Chinese paintings while drawing upon local sights and scenes.
In particular, he was concerned with applying the blending style of Chinese ink wash to watercolor painting, a method he used to create his most iconic images. Watercolor and ink wash were the two media Shiy particularly loved, and his application of the blacks and lines of the latter brought a richness to his watercolors.
Eventually he came to the realization that the simple, direct, and unaffected style of folk art was the best fit with his personal ideology — that creativity and drive are ultimately replenished by the same elements that make up one's culture.
From nativist sketches and portraits to landscape paintings and illustrations of architectural heritage and traditional buildings, Shiy's most celebrated artworks featured familiar yet iconic imagery like temples, people, and items from everyday life in Taiwan.
"My time in Taiwan has been just as long as my time in Sichuan, my birthplace, but my painting career was born, nourished, and raised by everything that Taiwan has to offer," he penned in an article titled "My Art and Taiwan (我的藝術與臺灣)."
In recent years, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts and Sun Ten Museum have stepped up their efforts to bring more Taiwanese artists to the forefront of public consciousness and share their extensive collections with viewers beyond their Taichung and Irvine headquarters, leading to a revival of interest in late nativist Taiwanese artists like Shiy.