WANG PAN-YOUN

Born into a prominent family in Jiangsu, Wang Pan-Youn lost his parents when he was young, and endured a tumultuous childhood. He was enrolled in law school at the Fudan University in 1933, but chose to study at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts the following year due to his interest in art making. He studied under seminal artists such as Pan Yuliang, Liu Haisu, and Pan Tianshou, and became proficient in ink, watercolor, and oil, waltzing between Chinese tradition and Western modernism. His plans of pursuing education in France upon graduation was disrupted by the Sino-Japanese War. He ended up relocating to Taiwan with his family with the Kuomintang government in 1949. Settling first in Kaohsiung, he became a temporary dock porter to make ends meet before moving to Yilan as an art teacher. It was not until he cofounded the Lanyang Painting Association with a group of friends in 1961 that he began garnering attention for his work, and gradually became one of the pivotal figures in Taiwan’s art circle. He received the National Award for Arts in 2001, cementing his legacy in Taiwan’s art history. He passed away in 2017 in Yilan, Taiwan at the age of 109.