Taroko National Park is not only a top tourist attraction in Taiwan, but also a favorite site or an inspiring place for artists, exemplified here by Ma Paishui’s “The Beauty of Taroko National Park,” completed in early 1999. Ma Paishui was ninety years old when “The Beauty of Taroko National Park” was completed in 1999, and he was still at the peak of his creative performance. Ma poured his entire lifetime’s techniques and artistic philosophy into this masterpiece for the “A Thousand Mountains in Colored Ink– Ma Paishui’s Ninetieth Year Retrospective Exhibition,” hosted by the National Museum of History in his honor in September 1999. The art work was presented to the National Museum of History as its permanent collection, offering people the chance to meet a master painter at his very best. At its first public viewing that year, the painting made a lasting impression with its majestic aura. “The Beauty of Taroko National Park” was the magnum opus during the climax of Ma’s artistic career. To publicize the painting, it appeared in the illustrated catalogue of The National Museum of History: Collection Highlights and smaller copies were printed for distribution.

 

 

“The Beauty of Taroko National Park” is the largest contemporary Chinese painting in colored ink. Its style is elegantly simple and the presentation of the colors and forms shows the particular touch unique to Ma’s watercolor paintings. The artwork consists of twenty-four pieces of 7-meter rice paper, making up a total length of 16800 centimeters. Across the painting spreads the magnificent sceneries of Taroko Gorge from east to west, along the Central Cross-Island Highway from left to right. Structured like traditional Chinese scroll paintings, each painting spreads out in sequence with a scene on each piece of rice paper. The scenes include: Xincheng, Mt. Xincheng, Cross-Island Highway Gateway, Foothills in Fog, Changchun Shrine (Eternal Spring Shrine), Views from Changuang Temple, Ning-an Bridge, Gorges by the Banks of Liwu River, Buluowan, Swallow Grotto (Yanzikou), Jinheng Bridge, Zhuilu Cliff, Liufang Bridge, Yixiantien (A Streak of Sky) at Hukou, Tunnel of Nine Turns (Jiuqudong), Kelan River Valley, Taroko River, Cimu Bridge, Yuewang Pavilion and its Surroundings, Lushui and its Surroundings, Mt. Futian, Tienfeng Tower (Xiangde Temple), Tianxiang (Jhih-huei Bridge), and Tianxiang (Distant Views). The timeframe follows a hiker’s walk as he progresses from dawn, early morning, morning, early noon, noon, afternoon, until dusk and into the night, with approximately three scenes forming a particular sequence in time. Each painting has a main theme and can be viewed as an individual scene. The entire work can also be appreciated when two, three, or four paintings are placed adjent to one another to form distinctive scenes, and this is where the artwork is most unique. The entire artwork offers a special perspective to viewers as though they are sitting in a wide-screen cinema; the entire artwork also allows the viewer to experience the changes of scenes from day to night in the same timeframe. With winding roads, surrounding clouds, and everchanging scenes of magnificent canyon, the artwork captures the grandeur of the landscape.

 

 

Born in Benxi County in Liaoning, China in 1909, Ma Paishui is known, along with Lan Yinding and Lee Zefan, as one of the top three watercolor painters in Taiwan. Ma graduated from the Department of Art at Shenyang Teachers College in Liaoning in 1929 and taught at Liaoning Normal University, Beijing Normal University, and later at National Zhongshan High School. He held several watercolor painting exhibitions and painted all over the country. In December 1948, he took a boat from Shanghai to Taiwan and toured around the island for two months to paint from life. His “Taiwan Watercolor Painting from Life Solo Exhibition” took place in Zhongshan Hall in Taipei, and received high praise from the art community, especially from the students of Taiwan Provincial Teachers College (now National Taiwan Normal University or NTNU). The college responded to the students’ request and asked Ma to teach at the school as the professor for watercolor painting. Ma taught at the college for the next twenty-seven years, during which he also lectured at the National Academy of Arts (now National Taiwan University of Arts), and Chinese Culture University. Also, he was appointed by the National Institute for Compilation and Translation to work as an editor and chief commissioner for middle and elementary school art text books. Ma was also a fellow of the China Academy, the administrative board member of the Chinese Art Association, and the judging committee member for the National Art Exhibition of Republic of China, Taiwan Provincial Fine Arts Exhibition, and Zhongshan Arts Award. After his retirement from NTNU in 1974, Ma moved to Manhattan, New York with his wife Xie Duanxia and began touring the United States and the world to paint from life, to hold exhibitions and present lectures. His trails led him to major cities in the U.S., as well as Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Malaysia, the three Scandinavian countries, and Mainland China. Of all the countries, he traveled most frequently to Taiwan, his homeland. In 1999, the National Museum of History hosted the “A Thousand Mountains in Colored Ink– Ma Paishui’s Ninetieth Year Retrospective Exhibition” in his honor. Ma died on January 7, 2003, at the age of 95 in his apartment in New York.

 

 

Despite moving to New York after his retirement from NTNU in 1974, Ma Paishui’s heart remained with Taiwan. His trips home always brought him to scenic places on the island to paint from life, and the sights and sounds of Taiwan remained with him long after his return to New York. To express his longing for Taiwan, he chose to paint the scenery at Taroko National Park. His brushstrokes and colored paint not only recorded the sceneries of mountains and rivers in Taiwan, but also showed a refined spirit of Ma Pai-sui’s philosophy in colored ink paintings.

 

According to the renovative paintaing framework described by Ma, his works can be divided into four features that are all evident in his masterpiece, “The Beauty of Taroko National Park.” The first one is colored ink painting. Ma loved Chinese culture, universal harmony, and the characteristics of changes throug different eras. He acknowledged that painting is the mutual language for all mankind and emphasized the concept that Chinese and Western characteristics can be incorporated and that traditional elements can be passed on to and infused with the contemporary elements. Colored ink paintings represented the ideas. The second feature is the combination of multiple sections into a single painting, in which three, six, nine or fourteen pieces are combined into one painting for simplicity of production, storage, transport, and exhibition according to available space. The third feature is multiple views: one painting can be constructed with various scenes from all over the county, province, country, and indeed the world. The fourth feature is the expression of a single scene from different perspectives. Imagine observing an image from all angles (from right, left, above, and below), and these perspectives crisscross, zoom in, and zoom out, forming a sense of instability. However, the artist must find a way for the viewer to feel at peace within the instability. 

 

As Ma stated, the beauty of his masterpiece “The Beauty of Taroko National Park” lies in the feeling and enjoyment. Like walking into the twenty-first century, where the inner spiritual emotions and enjoyment overcome the short-term material desires, the artwork allows viewers to experience infinite joy. The form, color, lines, and surface of the painting, with winding roads and majestic peaks, allow viewers’ to discover the splendor of nature. With views from high above, the painting gives viewers a spiritual uplift. Viewers are advised to contemplate and imagine, and perhaps they will make new discoveries and enjoy self-created delight and fulfillment..

 

1. Ma Pai-sui’s magnum opus “The Beauty of Taroko National Park” from the collection of the museum, Huang Yung-chuan, Journal of the National Museum of History, Vol. 37, June 2008, pp. 1-24.

2. “A Thousand Mountains of Colored Ink – Ma Paishui’s Ninetieth Year Retrospective Exhibition” Exhibition Catalogue of the National Museum of History, 1999.