THE FOLK-INDIVIDUALIST ARTIST in 1970S TAIWAN: HUNG TUNG (1920-87) and HIS ART by CRYSTAL HUI-SHU YANG Under the Direction of Bo
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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. Their intuitive art reflects very basic human natures, individuality, and folk culture. The term folk-individualist artist is applied to Hung—in contrast to such inadequate terms as primitive, naive, folk, Art Brut, and outsider artist. The controversy caused by Hung and his art represents the everlasting battle between the orthodox (who believe that art should be taught with formal training or learned in an educational setting) and the intuitive type artists (and their supporters) anywhere at anytime. As the term folk-individualist artist emphasizes both tradition and individuality, conclusively, the reconciliation of academic discipline and tradition with the intuitive approach in art education is advocated in this study. INDEX WORDS: Hung Tung, art, intuition, self-taught art, folk-individualist artist, primitive art, naive art, folk art, Art Brut, outsider art, calligraphic painting, Taoist talisman, Chinese/Taiwanese folk art, spirit-mediumship, shamanism, creativity, abstract thinking, hallucination, mythology, children’s art, expressionist art, abstract art. THE FOLK-INDIVIDUALIST ARTIST IN 1970S TAIWAN: HUNG TUNG (1920-1987) AND HIS ART by CRYSTAL HUI-SHU YANG B.A. Chinese Culture University, Taiwan, R.O.C., 1985 M.F.A. Radford University, 1996 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2003 @ 2003 Crystal Hui-Shu Yang All Rights Reserved THE FOLK-INDIVIDUALIST ARTIST IN 1970S’ TAIWAN: HUNG TUNG (1920-1987) AND HIS ART by CRYSTAL HUI-SHU YANG Major Professor: Bonnie Cramond Carole Henry Committee: Arthur Rosenbaum Robert Nix Noel Kathy Gregg Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May, 2003 Dedicated to my parents and my homeland, Taiwan iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Due to the mass media’s intensive coverage, I knew about Hung Tung in the 1970s. However, I never took a special interest in this self-taught artist until in 1999, when I was asked who would represent an “outsider” artist in Taiwan. Hung Tung was the first name that came to my mind. Taking advantage of a trip back home to Taiwan in the summer, I started to review literature on Hung. Surprisingly and intuitively, I found that his life stories fit my philosophy of art so well that I decided to choose Hung as my research subject. Since then, I have received a great deal of help from many people, so I would like to address my appreciation to them. In Taiwan, my family, relatives and friends have helped track down people and collect data for me. I highly appreciate my interviewees’ cooperation during the three trips I took to Taiwan in 2001. Hung’s youngest son, Hung Si-Bau, and the art collector, Lyau Jr-Syang, were among the interviewees who also showed me their collections of Hung’s paintings. Also, information provided by the present publisher of the Artist Magazine, He Jeng- Gwang, was important. In my several visits to the temple of Dai-Tyan-Fu, the staff of the temple and villagers gave me assistance with great enthusiasm. Especially, I would like to thank Hung’s close friend, Wu Ming-Syung, whose understanding of Hung and his art, as well as knowledge of religion and art, led me to associate Hung’s spirit mediumship with ancient sorcery in China. In addition, the spirit medium, Chen Jin-Je, answered all my inquiries about his professional secrets without reservation and provided me with videos of his spirit medium performance in the folk Taoist rituals—which was of great help for my research. Importantly, I have to thank the Tainan County Cultural Bureau for v letting me access county archives and review the collection of Hung’s paintings in the Tainan County Cultural Center. I certainly do not want to neglect to mention the advice and encouragement of my husband, Dr. Arthur F. Jones, who shared with me his insights on American folk and outsider artists. Finally, I would like to thank my dissertation committee: Dr. Bonnie Cramond, Dr. Carole Henry, Dr. Robert Nix, Professor Arthur Rosenbaum, and Dr. Noel Kathy Gregg. My first interest in the topic of creativity arose from attending Dr. Cramond’s characteristics of the gifted child course. This course was a turning point of my academic life—through which I was able to develop an interdisciplinary connection with art education. I further highlight my appreciation of Dr. Henry for her efforts to facilitate my involvement in this interdisciplinary study and her assistance in helping to find other appropriate members for my dissertation committee. In the final revision of this dissertation, Professor Rosenbaum (an artist with considerable expertise on American folk art as well as outsider art) has offered very constructive suggestions. His guidance was also highly appreciated. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS page DEDICATION....................................................................................................................iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES...........................................................................................................xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................1 Rationale and Research Questions......................................................1 A Brief Biographical Sketch of Hung Tung..........................................2 Overview of the Study..............................................................................5 New Perspectives, Discoveries, and Invention of this Research..10 2 THE CATASTASIS OF A TAOIST CEREMONY....................................14 A Brief History of Taiwan.......................................................................14 Nan-Kun-Shen and the Temple of Dai-Tyan-Fu..............................16 The Jyang-Jyau Ceremony of 1968....................................................18 3 HUNG TUNG AND HIS LIFE STORIES..................................................23 Birth to the Rising Years (1920-1976)................................................23 A Sensational and Controversial Art Exhibition (March 13 to 26, 1976)........................................................................................................34 Aftermath (1976-1979)..........................................................................51 Finale (1980-1987)................................................................................74 4 THE FOLK-INDIVIDUALIST ARTIST .....................................................83 Categorization of Hung’s Paintings....................................................83 Defining the Term: Folk-Individualist Artist........................................86 vii Research Questions..............................................................................90 5 WHAT IS ART?............................................................................................92 Aesthetic Experience.............................................................................92 Inspiration................................................................................................93 Creation Process....................................................................................94 Art Appreciation......................................................................................98 Art Speaks for Itself................................................................................98 6 VISUAL LANGUAGE..............................................................................102 Objective and Subjective Perspective.............................................102 Hung’s and Children’s Art..................................................................104