Painted in the White Cloud Hall in the Early Summer of 1955

Huang Junbi was born into a family of art collectors in Guangzhou, where his training in painting and calligraphy began at an early age. Huang followed the traditionalist Li Yaoping in studying Chinese painting. In the early twentieth century his interest started to extend to Western-style painting. He taught art in Guangzhou and Nanjing before settling in Taiwan in 1949.

As both a Chinese ink painter and an art educator Huang made a great contribution to Chinese traditional art and education in Taiwan. On one level, Huang’s painting style remained conservative and was particularly modeled on the brush-and-ink approaches of the Qing dynasty individualists Kuncan (1612–1673) and Shitao (1642–1707). On the other hand, he was also open to assimilating new ideas and knowledge, as shown in the innovative ways of depicting clouds and waterfalls in his work.

The inscription on the left corner of this painting was written by the artist and reads:

Crossing a bridge, the path enters a green gorge
Among these cloud-wrapped cliffs, how many deep windings!

Painted in early summer of 1955 at White Cloud Hall

(“Debating Art: Chinese Intellectuals at the Crossroads,” curated by Yuhua Ding, with assistance by Elizabeth Emrich, and presented at the Johnson Museum February 2-July 8, 2018)