The new retrospective of Chung Kui-ying’s work, currently at the National Museum of History in Taipei, is a storm of colours.
A student of Liao Chi-chun and one of Taiwan’s pioneering post-war women artists, Chung walked the same experimental path as her mentor but pushed it in her own direction: her weapon of choice is colour, not form.
Through decades of work, Chung gradually turned her back on narrative and figuration. She went from impressionism to fauvism to abstract. From portraits to impressions of landscapes to purely non-figurative canvasses. And she was never here to impress us with composition. The feeling is that she wanted to see how far colour could go before it collapsed in on itself.
Colour theory students will see the math. Everyone else will feel the heat.
In the 1970s, her palette floated in aquatic tones. Inviting shades of blue and green. But the show’s heartbeat is in her later work, when her restraint gives way to raw, theatrical bursts of crimson, gold, and acid green. Get inside the canvas and search for the balance point: black lines, a surgical touch that holds everything together.
Chung seems to refuse distractions. No brushstroke bravado. No clever textures. No illusions of light or depth. Colours are layered, blocked, calibrated to resonate like sound waves.
In her later works, her colour riots soften into whispers. The hues are still rich, but quieter and less urgent. She doesn’t give the impression that she lost energy, but rather that there is nothing left to prove. If you think painting has to say something, this exhibition might confuse you. But if you know that great art can simply feel like something, this is a place you’ll want to linger.
“An Educator’s Artful Colors: Works by Chung Kui-ying, a First-generation Female Artist in Post-war Taiwan” is on display at Taipei’s National Museum of History until 6 July. For more information, visit their website.