Pang Tseng-ying was born in 1916 in Shandong and grew up in Beijing. Instructed in Chinese calligraphy from childhood by his mother and studying traditional Chinese painting at an early age, he was accepted by the Beijing Chin-Hua Arts College at 18 also studied Western painting. He received a scholarship to study in Japan and entered Nippon University, and returned to teach at Beijing Chin-Hua Arts College after graduation. He brought his family to Taiwan in 1949, where he taught at the First Girl’s High School, the National Fine Arts College, and the Fu Hsing Business & Technology College. He held his first solo exhibition at the New York’s Argent Gallery in 1954, putting on display works painted in the mainland, Taiwan, and Tokyo; the exhibition was given prominent media coverage.
Read MoreEarlier, Pang had produced numerous oil paintings in more than a decade he spent in Taiwan as a member of the modern painting movement during the 50s and 60s. In 1965 Pang received the highest national honor, the Chiang Kai-shek Award; in 1966 he took up the residency in the US, where he received approval and supports in the artistic community, further assuring his later status among other modern painters.
His early abstract works often tinged with a surrealist style with a unique technique that showed a sort of roughness and a sense of speed which were brushed on, smeared, dripped, and flowing. The genres in which he worked also included richly-patterned traditional paintings of birds and flowers, which represented the style of similar works from the Five Dynasties period, with their bright colors and variegated compositions. Whether his inspiration derived from embroidery, brocade, or even the dyed silks of the Tang-era, these works all exhibited rich colors that combined with diverse patterns, textures, and images and created a fine oriental aesthetics.
