KUO Po-chuan

Taiwanese　1901 - 1974

As a famous artist and educator born in Tainan,Taiwan, Kuo served as a teacher after he graduated from school in 1921. With his artistic talents, Kuo went to Tokyo Art School for further education in 1928 and started to learn painting from Ryuzaburo, Umehara in 1933. In 1937,he went to China with Umehara and painted in Manchu Country. In 1938, under the Japanese dominance, he went back to his former career as a teacher at Beijing Normal University and Beijing Art School. He came back to Taiwan in 1948 when the Chinese Civil War burst out, and continued his education career in Cheng Kung University in 1950. Kuo died in 1974. His outdoor painting was admired in Beijing and Tianjin around the end of 1921. After WWII he began to implant a more Chinese style into his subjects such as Taiwanese utensils, broidery, and temples. His paintings are simple yet deep, well composed and powerfully colored, the strokes are precise and conscientious, resembling that of the ancient Chinese calligraphy.