Chuang Che

1934

Beijing , China

It was in the late 1960s when Director Alice King first saw Chuang Che’s works in the home of a friend in New York. Painted in the style of Western Abstract Expressionism, the image remained vividly in her mind, and in 1982 the gallery began exhibiting his works. Born in 1934 in Beijing, China, Chuang’s early education was steeped in classical Chinese painting and calligraphy. His father, Chuang Shangyen, was the Vice-Director of the National Palace Museum in Beijing and so Chuang Che had many opportunities to see the museum’s collection first-hand.

In 1949, he immigrated to Taiwan with his family and graduated with a Fine Arts degree from the National Taiwan Normal University in 1957 having studied drawing under Chu Teh-Chun. It was during this period that Chuang co-founded the Fifth Moon Group, which advocated that Chinese artists experiment with traditional Chinese art and Western avant-garde art – in particular Abstract Expressionism. The art historian Michael Sullivan wrote that Chuang Che artwork ”rejected the tien (dots) and ts’un (texture strokes) altogether” creating “[Franz] Kline-like gestures”. (The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art, pg. 199). In 1966, having won an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship to study in the United States, he began travelling to Europe and the United States in 1968. In 1973, he settled in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and in 1988 moved to New York where he continues to work. Since the 1960s, he has made a concerted attempt to revolutionise Chinese landscape painting, incorporating abstract elements in acrylic and oil.

Since 1982, Alisan Fine Arts has held five solo exhibitions for the artist. His works have also been included in several of the gallery’s important group exhibitions, such as Abstraction and Beyond held in 1997 at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, and, in the same year at the Shanghai Art Museum The Chinese Root: Works by Mainland and Overseas Chinese Artists. In 2024, the National Museum of History in Taipei hosted a significant group exhibition titled Fifth Moon and Ton-Fan while Alisan Fine Arts showcased Chuang Che's early oil paintings at a booth themed Classic Masterpieces in Art Basel Hong Kong. Both exhibitions captured significant attention from the art community.

His works have been collected by Cleveland Museum of Art; Detroit Institute of Arts; Cornell University; Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan; National Museum of History, Taipei; Taipei Fine Arts Museum; Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum; Guangdong Museum of Art; Hong Kong Museum of Art, and M+, Hong Kong.

BIOGRAPHY
1934 Born in Beijing, to Chuang Shang-Yen, a scholar and calligrapher who worked at the National Palace Museum, Beijing, China
1948 Moved to Taiwan
1954 Studied under Chu Teh-Chun (1920-2014) at Fine Arts Department, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
1958 Graduated from Fine Arts Department, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
Co-founder of Fifth Moon Group, Taiwan
Exhibited in Premiere Biennale de Paris, and Biennial de Sao Paulo, Brazil
1960-64 Travelled Europe, met Zao Wou-ki (1920-2013) and Chu Teh-Chun in Paris, and met Antonio Tapis (1923-2012) in Spain
1962 Exhibited in International Painting Salon in Hong Kong
1963-73 Professor of Art, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan
1965 Solo exhibitions in USA, Canada, Germany, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong
1966 Awarded John D. Rockefeller III Foundation Fellowship (Visual Art) to study in USA
Artist-in-residence at University of Iowa, Iowa, USA
Became assistant of American Abstract sculptor Seymour Lipton (1903-1986), New York, USA
1967 Solo show, Ann Arbor, Michigan; travelled to Europe
1968 Observed contemporary art developments in USA and Europe; Spent six months in Paris, France
1972 Received award to study Art History in University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
1973 Moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
1985 Fulbright Fellow as Visiting Professor, National Arts Institute, Taipei, Taiwan
1986 Travelled to China; exhibited in Beijing, China
1988 Moved to New York, USA
1992 Set up studio in Manhattan, New York, USA
Present Lives in New York, USA

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023

Chuang Che, Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong

2022

Chuang Che, Chaotic Harmony, Vazieux Gallery, Paris

2020

Chuang Che Anniverary Solo Exhibition: As Lofty as a Mountain, Asia Art Centre, Taipei, Taiwan

2015

Effusive Vitality: Chuuang Che Retrospective Exhibition, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

2007-08

Deep Ridge, Remote Way, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China

2005

Primal Form: An Exhibition of Chuang Che’s Painting, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan

2002

Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
The Song of the Earth: Chuang Che, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

1999

Kaohsiung Musem of Fine Arts, Kaosiung, Taiwan
Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

1998

Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center, New York, USA

1993

Recent Paintings by Chuang Che, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

1992

Retrospective, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

1989

Chuang Che, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

1986

Abstract Paintings on Canvas by Chuang Che, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

1982

Paintings by Chuang Che, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

1980

National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan

1977

Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, Michigan, USA
Kalamazoo Institute of Art, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA

1974

Oberlin College Asian Society, Oberlin College, Ohio, USA

1972

Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey, USA
Newark Art Museum, Newark, New Jersey, USA

1970

Fine Art Museum, Flint, Michigan, USA

1965

National Taiwan Arts Hall, Taipei, Taiwan

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024-2025

The Journey of Ink: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Paintings from the Museé Cernuschi, Bund One Art Museum, Shanghai, China

2024

Asian-American Abstraction: Historic to Contemporary, Hollis Taggart, New York, USA
Art Basel Hong Kong, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
Fifth Moon and Ton-Fan: The Birth of Modernist Art Movement in Taiwan, National Taiwan Arts Education Centre, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan

2022-2023

Ink in Motion: A History of Chinese Painting in the 20th Century, Cernuschi Museum, Paris, France

2021-2022

Individuals, Networks, Expressions, South Galleries, M+, Hong Kong

2018

Art Basel Hong Kong 2018, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong

2017

Art Taipei, Alisan Fine Arts, Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei, Taiwan
From China to Taiwan: Pioneers of Abstraction, Museum of Ixelles, Brussel, Belgium

2016

Alisan Fine Arts: Celebrating 35 Years of Promoting Chinese Contemporary Art, Hong Kong Central Library, Hong Kong

2006

The Third Space: Chinese Text of Abstract Art, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai; Ningbo Art Museum, Ningbo; 798 Art District, Beijing, China

2005

Abstraction Gesture, Tenri Cultural Center, New York, USA
China Contemporary Art, University of Minnesota Art Museum, Minnesota, USA
Modern art in Taiwan: the heroes of Guandu in 2005, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan

2004

Beyond Representation, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

2003

Taiwan Paintings in the Sixties, Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

2002

Oriental Essence: The Abstraction of Overseas Chinese Artists, Gary Snyder Fine Art, New York, USA
International Exhibition of Abstract Art by Overseas Chinese Artists, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China; Artist Commune, Hong Kong
Autumn Salon, Paris, France

2000

International Art Symposium & Exhibition of Painting, Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, Canada
Gallery 456, Chinese-American Arts Council, New York, USA

1998

2nd Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
1st Shenzhen Biennial, Shenzhen, China
Fundamental Elements, Art Beautus, Vancouver, Canada

1997-9

Asian Tradition - Modern Expression, Zimmerli Art Museum of the Rutgers University, New Jersey; Chicago Cultural Center, IL; Fisher Gallery, The University of Southern California, CA; Dean Lesher Center of Arts, Walnut Creek, CA, USA; Kaohsiung Fine Arts, Taiwan; Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taiwan; three museums in Japan

1997

The Chinese Root: Works by Mainland and Overseas Chinese Artists, Alisan Fine Arts, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Chinese Abstraction and Beyond, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

1996

Mutations of Ink and Paper, Taipei Gallery, New York, USA
Horwitch-Newman Gallery, Scottsdale, USA

1995

Wonders of Chinese Abstraction, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

1994-5

Between East and West: Transformation of Chinese Art in the late Twentieth Century, The Discovery Museum, Bridgeport, USA

1994

Haeneh-Kent Gallery, New York, USA

1992

Louis Newman Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA, USA

1991

David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Taipei: New York Confrontation of Modernism, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

1990

Forum of Hamburg International Art Festival, Hamburg, Germany

1989

The Progressional Exhibition of Contemporary Art, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan

1987

The Progressional Arts Exhibitions in the Republic of China, Taipei Provincial Art Museum, Taichung, Taiwan

1986

A Retrospective Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Art, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

1985

David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee, WI, USA; Lungmen Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

1983

Overseas Chinese Artists, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

1982

Chuang Che, Hao Ma, Chen Ting-Shih: Exhibition of Three Artists, Hong Kong Arts Center, Hong Kong

1981

Fifth Moon and Ton Fan 25th Anniversary Joint Exhibition, Taiwan Provincial Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

1979

Contemporary Chinese and Japanese Art, Summit Art Center, Summit, New Jersey, USA
An Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art, Asia Foundation Art Gallery San Francisco, California, uSA

1976

Three Contemporary Artists, Foot Hills Art Center, Golden, Colorado, USA

1975

10 Chinese Leading Artists, Metropolitan Museum, Tokyo, Japan

1973

The Bienal de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Contemporary Chinese Paintings, Oshkosh Public Museum, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA

1970

Contemporary Chinese Art, The Claremont and Pomona College, California, USA

1969

Pintura China Contemporana, Madrid, Spain

1966-68

The New Chinese Landscape: Travelling Exhibition of Six Chinese Artists, Taiwan and USA

1965

Chinese Modern Art Exhibition, Galleria Del Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, Italy
Contemporary Chinese Art Exhibition, Laren Zwolle, Gravenhage, Delft, The Netherlands
Modern Chinese Paintings, Woodrow Wilson Society, Princeton University, New jersey, USA

1963

The Bienal de Sao Paulo, San Paulo, Brazil
The Premiere Biennale de Paris, Paris, France
Chinese Avant Garde Exhibition, Dominion Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Modern Art Exhibition From Taiwan, Chatham Gallery, Hong Kong

1962

First International Art Exhibition, Saigon, Vietnam
Chinese Modern Painting Exhibition, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan
International Salon of Painting, Hong Kong

1961

The Bienal de Sao Paulo, San Paulo, Brazil

1959

The Bienal de Sao Paulo, San Paulo, Brazil

1958-63

Fifth Moon Group Exhibition, Taipei, Taiwan

1958

1st International Exhibition of Young Artist in Paris, Paris, France

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Cleveland Art Museum, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan, USA
Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, Michigan, USA
Lehman Brothers, New York, USA
Taipei Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan
Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
M+, Hong Kong