Lin Yu-Shan

TAIWAN, Chiayi

Lin Yu-Shan was a gouache artist and ink painter. Inspired in his childhood by his father who was a folk painter, he set off to study at Kawabata Painting School in Japan at the age of 19. In 1927, his artwork was chosen at the first Taiwan Provincial Fine Arts Exhibition. Together with Kuo Hsueh-Hu and Chen Jin, he is regarded as one of the Three Young Artists of the Taiwan Provincial Fine Arts Exhibition. His painting, Lotus Pond, won the Outstanding Award in 1930. Lin later taught at various schools around Taiwan, and was subsequently awarded with several honors as an artist, including the National Special Contribution Award in Cultural Arts in 1990.
Lin’s paintings emphasized details, which created a realistic portrayal of the subject. His distinct style set him apart and influenced the art field in Taiwan. Many of his paintings were inspired by other forms of Buddhist art, for example, his Avalokitesvara Reclining on a Lotus was inspired by a Song dynasty (960–1279) woodcarving of the theme now kept at the Art Institute of Chicago in the USA. His other paintings include Borobudur and Tiger-Taming Arhat, both kept at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung.