Lot 237: HONG TONG

HONG TONG 1920-1987 UNTITLED Signed and dated 63 ( Minguo calendar) (lower left) Executed in 1974 oil, poster paint and ink on paper 107.5 by 37.2 cm.; 42 3/8 by 14 5/8 in.

Taiwan, Cultural Affairs Bureau of Yaoyuan County Government, The Wild Wonders of Hung Tung: Aesthetics of Taiwan, May, 2010

The Wild Wonders of Hung Tung: Aesthetics of Taiwan, Taiwan, 2010, published by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Yaoyuan County Government, p. 122

Private Asian Collection

A Glimpse into the World of the Artist Hong Tong

Born in Kunshan, Tainan, Taiwan's famous artist Hong Tong (1920-1987) was an orphan from a very young age. As he could not afford an education, Hong Tong was illiterate and so took on part-time jobs, working as a fisherman and even as a servant in temples to earn a living. Hong Tong experienced a creative epiphany in 1970 when he turned 50. His artistic soul was awoken and he turned to the masters of art to learn how to paint, producing a series of works that were unique in style and filled with originality. In 1972, Hong Tong held an exhibition in which his mysterious artistic vocabulary and imagination captivated viewers and attracted international interest. In the 1970s, due to the intense media coverage that his works attracted, Taiwan experienced "Hong Tong Fever". But what does a viewer need to know when trying to understand Hung Tung's work?

In my opinion, there are three key ways to understanding Hong Tong's work. Firstly, the viewer must understand the age he lived in, his family background, the age of his siblings, how he lived and the choice of materials he used for his works such as colour, oil, ink and paper, etc. In the works of Hong Tong, one can find lots of sidelines, tangents and lines of separation. By creating a structure of blocks and circles, each painting can be dissected into separate parts which symbolize his relationship with the outside world.

Secondly, the viewer should try to explore Hong Tong's spirituality. Hong Tong was Buddhist and believed that everything on earth possessed its own spirit which can communicate with other spirits. The personification of nature in his works conveys a spiritual element whilst the sense of innocence in his paintings captivates viewers of all nationalities and allows them to read into and deeply appreciate his work.

Thirdly, like a film producer, Hong Tong allocates a role to each character in his paintings, allowing them to entertain and speak on behalf of him. The key point is the positioning of characters in his paintings. The protagonist is usually placed right in the centre of his works. All in all, Hong Tong's work embodies a sense of story-telling, appealing to one's imagination, dreams and reality.

By Lu Yanqing, Professor of Art and Design, National Hsinchu University of Education