Chinese Name: 蕭勤
Born: January 30, 1935
Died: June 30, 2023
Birthplace: Shanghai, China
Did You Know That…?
Hsiao Chin, a contemporary artist in Taiwan, was one of the founding members of Ton Fan Group (東方畫會), which was Taiwan’s first modern art group.
Born in Shanghai, China, in 1935, Hsiao Chin moved to Taiwan with his family in 1949. He enrolled at Taiwan Provincial Normal School (now National Taipei University of Education) in 1951. The next year, Hsiao began to study painting with master Li Chun-Shan (李仲生), whose unorthodox art pedagogy inspired Hsiao Chin greatly.
In 1955, Hsiao Chin, along with other seven artists who were also Li Chun-Shan’s pupils including Shia Yang (夏陽), Wu Hao (吳昊), Li Yuan-chia (李元佳), Tommy Chen (陳道明), Hsiao Ming-hsien (蕭明賢), Ouyang Wen-yuan (歐陽文苑), and Ho Kan (霍剛), established Taiwan’s first avant-garde art group—Ton Fang Group. Due to their creative breakthroughs in modern art, the founding members of Ton Fang Group were hailed as the “Eight Great Outlaws (八大響馬).” Hsiao went to Spain for further study with a scholarship in 1956. However, he found out local art schools were too conservative. Therefore, Hsiao decided not to study in a traditional art institute, but to participate in art events and meet with like-minded creators in different places instead. The self-taught artist took a path of artistic creation that enriched his art career.
For Hsiao Chin, Spain was the starting point for displaying himself on the international stage, and Italy was an important place that changed his life. In the summer of 1958, Hsiao went to Italy for the first time to participate in the Venice Biennale, an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice. It was a great opportunity for Hsiao to broaden his artistic horizon. He was invited to hold his solo exhibition by an Italian gallery Galleria Numero in 1959. At that time, Hsiao met his art promoter Giorgio Marconi, who had been his only art agent for several decades.
In 1961, Hsiao Chin launched the Punto International Art Movement (龐圖國際藝術運動) with Italian artist Antonio Calderara. At the same time, he hosted a solo exhibition in Milan. Later, Hsiao’s artworks were exhibited around the world, including Italy, Spain, France, Britain, and the United States.
Hsiao Chin went to the Istituto Europeo di Design (European Institute of Design) in Milan to teach visual communication in 1971. Through an introduction by an Italian friend, Hsiao met the dean of the Fine Arts Department of Louisiana State University in the United States and was invited to the university as a visiting professor for a semester the following year. From then on, the artist took his teaching job in Europe and the U.S.
Returning to Taiwan in 1996, Hsiao Chin was appointed as a professor at Tainan National College of the Arts (now Tainan National University of the Arts). Aiming to cultivate artistic talents in higher education, Hsiao hoped to improve the educational environment to make up for the lack of resources when he studied art in his youth in Taiwan. When serving as a professor at the Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts of Tainan National College of the Arts, Hsiao brought the teaching model from Europe into the Taiwanese art school. He supported his students to develop their distinctive styles instead of following the tradition of the art community. Like his mentor Li Chun-Shan, Hsiao rejected conservative pedagogy that overemphasized art techniques. He offered individual guidance for each of his students and encouraged them to create their works with innovation. Because of his forward-looking approach to Taiwan’s art education, Hsiao was awarded an honorary doctorate by the National Tainan University of the Arts.
Hsiao’s creation explores the integrated self and spiritual world, straddling in dialectics of Western and Eastern philosophy and developing his own artistic viewpoint and unique creative vision. He used various art media in his later works, opening up a broader dimension of creativity.
Having been active on the international art scene for nearly 40 years, Hsiao Chin was an important pioneer of the Taiwanese modern art movement in the late 1950s. He was honored with the National Award for Arts (國家文藝獎), the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon (二等景星勳章), and the Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella della Solidarieta’ Italiana (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy). Greatly passionate about modern art, Hsiao introduced works by Spanish avant-garde artists to Taiwan and creations by the members of Ton Fan Group to Europe, committed to promoting arts exchange between East and West.