Tu-Shui Huang Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1895 - d. 1930

The renowned Taiwan sculptor Huang Tu-shui lived a short life, dying at the age of 36 in the early 1930s. But in that brief lifetime, he changed the island's art scene forever.

Huang's life was one of many "firsts." He made his name by becoming the first artist from Taiwan to gain entry into Japan's distinguished "imperial exhibition." Moreover, he is recognized as Taiwan's first bona fide sculptor, the island's first artist to study abroad and the first Taiwan student to attend the Tokyo Fine Arts School.

The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, in southern Taiwan, recently held a centenary exhibition of Huang's creations, including his sculptures made of bronze, marble, glass fibers and plaster as well as several of his wood reliefs and woodcarvings.

The curator of the museum, Huang Tsai-lang, praised the sculptor as the forerunner of the genre in Taiwan. For centuries in Chinese society, image carving was associated only with temple architecture; it was considered a craft, not a fine art. But by fusing Western art principles and Eastern concepts of temple adornment, Huang advanced the craft into the realm of fine art, the curator noted.

Even so, the curator added, few people in Taiwan have had the opportunity to fully appreciate Huang's talent, as many of his sculptures have been lost over the decades.

For the centenary exhibition, the Kaohsiung museum managed to round up 22 Huang creations from various collectors. The show also included 14 works by the Japanese sculpture masters Fumio Asakura, Seibo Kitamura and Koun Takamura, each of whom taught at the Tokyo Fine Arts School when Huang studied there.

The purpose of exhibiting the Japanese works was to let scholars and art enthusiasts observe the influence that Huang's teachers had on his stylistic development.

Huang was born in 1895, the first year of Japan's half-century occupation of Taiwan. He grew up in a carpenter's family in Mengchia, the old city of Taipei. He was not able to attend public school until he was 12 years old, when he began his education under the Japanese system.

The next year, the family moved to Tataochen, an area along the Tamsui River to the northwest of today's Taipei Railway Station. At the time, it was the most prosperous district in Taipei.

The area was a commercial hub for the export of tea, camphor and sundry goods to mainland China. It was also teeming with temples and related shops that sold Buddhist carvings and religious wares. Each day as Huang walked past these stores on his way to school, the sights of the various icons filled his head and he soon developed a strong appreciation of the folk carvings.

Huang's curiosity eventually got the best of him. He picked up some carving tools and set out to recreate the images that he saw in the shops and temples. While his playmates were climbing trees, spinning tops and frolicking at the riverside, young Huang was totally absorbed in his art.

In 1912, after he graduated from elementary school, Huang passed the examination to attend the prestigious Japanese Language School in Taipei. At the time, the quality of education provided at the school was among the finest in Taiwan. However, the curriculum did not include carving classes.

But this failed to diminish Huang's enthusiasm for his favorite pastime. He continued developing his carving skills on his own until his big chance came when a graduation exhibition was held for the school's outgoing seniors. While most of his classmates turned in handicrafts that they had purchased, Huang displayed a self-made woodcarving of his left hand.

Surprised by the young man's talent, Huang's teacher encouraged him to create another work, which he did--a carving of Kuanyin, the Goddess of Mercy. The statue of the goddess was kept on display at the school for quite some time, and Huang became famous throughout the campus.

Not long after Huang graduated from the school, the Japanese government in 1915 provided him a three-year scholarship to study at the Tokyo Fine Arts School. While in Japan, the young man from Taiwan immersed himself in an artistic environment swirling with Western as well as Eastern concepts.

He knew he had to study harder to outdo his Japanese peers. So, on holidays when his classmates returned home for family reunions, Huang buried his head in library books and worked day and night creating clay statues.

Though he majored in woodcarving, it was in the Tokyo school that Huang started to turn his interest toward sculpture and the use of different materials such as bronze, stone and marble.

In 1920, when Huang graduated from the fine arts school, his sculpture "Child of the Mountain" was accepted into the imperial exhibition, winning the young man fame across Japan and Taiwan.

Huang continued his advanced study in sculpture in the graduate section of the Tokyo school, and in 1921 his marble work "Sweet Dew" also gained entry into the imperial exhibition.

Huang completed his course work in the graduate section and in 1922 returned to Taiwan, receiving a hero's welcome from local art circles. At the end of the same year "Posing Woman" was named Huang's third sculpture to join the imperial exhibition.

The year 1923 marked Huang's full maturity in sculptural expression. He began to create without restraint, producing such superlative works as "Goats," "Rabbit" and "Dragon." These Huang creations bear the stylistic imprint of Rodin, as they have prominent creases and pinch marks on them. Also, Huang gave them a great variation of bodily movement by capturing the rich interplay of light and shadow.

As Huang's sculpting skills approached a zenith, the artist began searching for a style uniquely his own. He looked to Taiwan society for inspiration.

The water buffalo, a symbol of perseverance, the hard-work ethic and determination in Taiwan society, was chosen by the artist for his next subject. In 1924, Huang completed "Suburb," a sculpture depicting a water buffalo with a bird standing on its back. Again, his creation was awarded admission into Japan's imperial exhibition.

In the following years, Huang finished a series of water buffalo sculptures, including "On the Way Home." The work depicts five buffaloes returning at sunset after a day of toil in the rice paddies.

In 1930, Huang worked on an ambitious creation called "Image of a Herd of Buffaloes" for the imperial exhibition. However, before he could finish the work, the great artist died of peritonitis in December of that year.

In the years after Huang graduated from the Tokyo Fine Arts School, he made his living as a professional sculptor, accepting commissions to produce a wide variety of statues--full body sculptures, seated sculptures, busts, reliefs.

In these works Huang paid meticulous attention to each and every detail. During this brief eight-year span, he created memorable sculptures of humans, animals, plants and landscapes, and each seems instilled with the qualities of peace and happiness. His sculptures of flower and plants in particular are metaphors of goodness and beauty: the peony symbolizing wealth, the green bamboo representing humility.

Huang's "Image of the Buddha Sakyamuni" symbolizes the pursuit of the ultimate truth without fear of death. His portrayal of Kuanyin and Maitreya, compassionate beings who seek to save souls through the elimination of suffering, conveys the same sentiment.

During his artistic career, Huang created images of pigeons, carps, quails, lions, oxen, rabbits, horses, monkeys, chickens, pigs and sheep. In all of these works, and even in the dragons that he sculpted, there is no trace of evil or hostility.

Instead, these images convey a positive outlook on life. They bespeak thankfulness, chivalry, filial respect, love, courage and good fortune. Huang was an artist at peace with his time