CHENG Tsai-Tung

Cheng Tsai-Tung is one of an important group of Taiwan artists who first made their mark during the late 1970s and early 1980s by contemporising literati aesthetics via a unique mode of Expressionism, blended with subtly surrealist imagery. Cheng creates compositions of Taiwan quotidian life into which he inserts a version of himself as the loitering intellectual—a personal statement of engagement with his own time. He also has a strong grasp of two elements that most contemporary artists interested in the literati mode have neglected: an authentic use of colour and an understanding of the aesthetics of you, an interior/exterior quality of dimness and quietude. Cheng’s spirit of literati leisure is a form of wisdom, because an easy heart is not restricted by historical space-time. Whether at work or play, he treads lightly and leaves no traces. He partakes equally of the pleasures of antiquity and the engagements of contemporary life, but he carries no baggage with him.

In recent years,Cheng Tsai-Tung has increasingly shifted to a state of solitude in which his interlocutors remain the ancients alone. Through classical poetry, he has slowly found ways to crystallize these complex sentiments into a faint melancholy. He condenses his personal tales and sensibility into the mise-en-scène of colourful moonlight, and at the same time morphs himself into a sentient being within the stream of history.

Cheng Tsai-Tung’s contemplative anxiety about the passing of time, and the fragility and preciousness of life drive him on the path of creation. His pursuit of archaic style is a testament to his many years of research travels around China. Although Cheng Tsai-Tung refuses the traditional paths of ink painting, his persistent search for the archaic spirit has opened a personal approach. In these paintings, we can see his engaged interest in ink and brush, his relish in the charm of awkwardness and playfulness, as well as the inner reserve of his personality that flashes out of the silence.