THE FOLK-INDIVIDUALIST ARTIST in 1970S TAIWAN: HUNG TUNG (1920-87) and HIS ART by CRYSTAL HUI-SHU YANG Under the Direction of Bo
THE FOLK-INDIVIDUALIST ARTIST IN 1970S TAIWAN: HUNG TUNG (1920-87) AND HIS ART by CRYSTAL HUI-SHU YANG Under the Direction of Bonnie Cramond and Carole Henry ABSTRACT This interdisciplinary study explores the relation between intuition and art through a case study of Taiwanese self-taught painter Hung Tung (1920-1987) and the controversy his art caused in 1970s Taiwan. There were two turning points in this illiterate rural man’s life. At age of 50 (in 1969), Hung suddenly plunged himself into maniacal art creation, and his fame reached the top during the Hung Tung exhibition of 1976. These two turning points resulted in the legend of Hung Tung. An intuitive feeling is hard to verbalize, and intuitive art is ineffable. In order to understand Hung’s intuitive approach in art, the unconscious human mind (wherein the infinite creative potentials are hidden and intuitive cognition works involuntarily) is examined. As an amateur and untrained spirit medium, Hung revealed his hallucinatory and shamanistic visions in his paintings. In trance, Hung was able to access the forgotten, collective memories from time immemorial. The analysis of Hung’s paintings involves the subjects of Chinese ancient pictographs, Taoism, Taoist art, talisman, folk art, spirit-mediumship, shamanism, creativity, abstract thinking, hallucination, mythology, the art of children, primitive art, expressionist art, and abstract art. Usually, self-taught artists are inspired by religions or indigenous cultures, and driven by inner impulses to create art. They gather objects from their living environment, then manipulate and transform them into art works with personal touches—as they pick up subjects from their daily lives, internalize them, and turn out individual styles.
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