Today (June 16) Minister of Culture, Lee Yung-te, visited “There is a Time—Memorial Exhibition of Li Chi-mao 's Ink Figure Painting” at Bo-ai Gallery, National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, and kindly greeted Li Chi-mao’s wife, Ms. Zhang Guang-zheng. Then he headed to Chungshan National Gallery to visit “Flourishing in the Afterglow-Exhibition of Calligraphy and Seal Engraving by Hsueh Ping-Nan.” Li Chi-mao 's daughter and the exhibition curator, Ms. Li An-rong guided Minister Lee Yung-te to visit “There is a Time—Memorial Exhibition of Li Chi-mao 's Ink Figure Painting” and interpreted Prof. Li’s painting characteristics and the background stories. After the visit, Minister Lee said there is a strong personal style in Prof. Li’s works, where he depicts the very vivid images with the simple lines and materials. The works are very precious as they impress people with the deep thoughts.
Prof. Li Chi-mao was originally named Li Yun-tai. In 1925, he was born in Anhui Province, China. In 1949, he came to Taiwan and then graduated from Department of Art, Political Warfare Cadres Academy. Prof. Li Chi-mao is a representative painter of the first generation in the postwar ink painting circle of Taiwan. He experienced the pulses of time and changes of the environment, keeping exploring and making innovations in creation. His works are of diverse styles, ranging from the battlefield art, folk culture, to humanistic concern. Li Chi-mao integrates the traditional ink techniques with the western sketching skills, capturing the constantly changing images, endowing the traditional ink painting with the meaning of the new era, and painting an important page of the history of fine arts.
Later Minister Lee Yung-te visited “Flourishing in the Afterglow-Exhibition of Calligraphy and Seal Engraving by Hsueh Ping-Nan” at Chungshan National Gallery. The artist, Prof. Hsueh Ping-Nan, expressed his gratitude to Minister Lee for visiting on the last day of the exhibition as the grand finale. Minister Lee was impressed by the great momentum in Prof. Hsueh’s calligraphy works and praised National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall for holding many quality exhibitions and activities under the guidance of Director-general, Liang Yung-fei. He expected National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall’s better development in visual arts and performing arts in the future.