Practical education in fine arts can develop a solid foundation for drawing and painting, but only life itself provides the basis for creativity. The painter Su Tao (real Chinese name I Chung­-­chain, French name Renée I) has been living in Belgium for over half a century, and the rigorous challenges of life in a foreign land have accumulated in her soul, creating an unwavering determination that is evident in her large-scale creative works.

Standing before the boundless tension of her power­ful artworks, Su Tao’s diminutive figure seems especially delicate. But this stark contrast only underscores the vigor of her spirit. She not only loves to create, she has also dedicated herself to education, enabling traditional Chinese culture to flourish in a foreign land. The two activities have one principle running through them: Because she has love in her heart, she will never cease.

 

In the “Good Luck Is Shining” series of 2017, which continues in her original simple and clean style, Su Tao’s wild and passionate brush strokes exhibit her artistic confidence.

If you want to stand out in the world of painting in Europe, already crowded with masters, and become one of the elite of contemporary art, what you need are out-of-the-ordinary inner qualities and thought-­provoking ideas. In black ink, with bold, simple brushstrokes, through Zen concepts Su Tao manifests her comprehension of life, and through elegance she enables broad expectations to blossom. “All expression comes from life. It’s my inexhaustible source of sustenance.” Su Tao uses painting to guide us into the world of her spirit.

Almost left behind

For an infant born amid the chaos of war, life is uncertain and fragile. Two years before the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Su Tao entered the world in mainland China’s Sichuan Province. Talking about her early childhood, a memory that still haunts her is of how she was nearly drowned.

After the defeat of Japan in 1945, Su Tao’s father, who had earned recognition for his work on the construction of the Hu­nan-Guangxi-Gui­zhou railway, was ordered to go to Taiwan to rebuild the railways there. But his parents were determined to stay in their hometown, and were not willing to go along. “My father talked with my grand­father and grandmother for three days and nights but was unable to shake their resolve, so finally it was decided to leave a child behind to accompany them.”

“I was nearly drowned, and even until now, whenever I see water, I feel uncontrollable fear.” The frail child, terrified that she would be the one to be left behind, clung to the hem of her mother’s clothing. “To stop me from crying and fussing, my mother pressed my head down into the water of the family pond.” It has been her determination to struggle and stay alive that has sustained Su Tao as she has passed through the challenges of life.

Su Tao employs a combination of Chinese and Western techniques to express her deeply Chinese cultural core, manifesting the grace of calligraphy through extreme simplicity.

Deep aesthetic roots

“In my memory, we were always moving house.” By the time she came to Taiwan, her father had been re­assigned to run a sugar refinery, and subsequently he was frequently transferred to places all over Taiwan. This long period of moving around allowed Su Tao to develop the habit of being adaptable to new circumstances from a young age. It also allowed her to reveal her natural talent for drawing and painting. Ji Wen­xiang, a teacher of fine arts, discovered her outstanding talent and often gave her extra instruction. “I am really grateful to Teacher Ji, because without his guidance, perhaps I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

She stood out from an early age. At age 17, she took first place in a calligraphy competition in Ping­tung County, and at age 19 she was selected for inclusion in the Taiwan Provincial Fine Arts Exhibition. At age 22 she received an honorable mention at the World Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Seoul, Korea. After graduating from high school, she tested into the National Taiwan College of Arts (now the National Taiwan University of Arts), where she received support and guidance from many bene­volent teachers, including Professor Fu ­Chuan-fu for landscapes, Professor Kao I-feng for people and animals, and Professor Hu Ke-min for flowers and birds. It was Wang ­Chuang-wei, who taught calligraphy and seal carving, who gave her the name Su Tao. “Su” (Shu) is an ­ancient name for Si­chuan, while Tao means “great waves.” “My teacher said that I had strength, like a guy,” implying that her brush strokes were vigorous and unconstrained, surging like a roaring sea. These elite and famous Taiwan artists, each with their own style, enabled Su Tao to set down a solid foundation in ink-wash painting.

A single brush stroke depicting a circle embraces the limitless energy of life. Like the nurturing of an embryo, it represents inexhaustible motion in the universe.

Surviving by cooking

The youthful and beautiful Su Tao was always surrounded by suitors. But she had decided she wanted to go abroad to study, and had no interest in having a boyfriend, until she met Yu Shu­mou. “He was the cultivated intellectual type, very refined, and he also looked after me in every possible way.” As she recalls the sweetness of falling in love, Su Tao shows the emotions of a young girl. After they had been going together for three years, Su Tao had to bear the pain of giving up a full scholarship to study fine arts and be a teaching assistant in the US, in order to follow Yu, who was a PhD candidate, to Belgium, there to begin life in a foreign land.

“Even my wedding gown I had to borrow from [poet] Xi Mu­rong.” Su Tao recalls the scene of her wedding: “It was pouring with rain when we held the ceremony in a Belgian church.” With the two of them being poor students without any support, Su Tao had to take on the heavy responsibility of making money, so she went to work in the ROC embassy, and taught Chinese on the side. “At that time we couldn’t afford a fridge, so when I saw the ground covered in snow and ice, I buried chicken meat in the snowdrifts outside our door. Who knew that by the next day it would have been eaten by cats!” Tough times were made tougher by the arrival of four children one after the other. “At that time all I thought about was how to make money to provide for them.”

Every living thing in the world has its own independent road to travel. Within the norms set by social ethics, each individual reveals a different destiny.

Su Tao rolls up her pants leg and rubs the scars on her calf, as she recounts what is still a heart-rending memory: “I spilled a whole pan of hot oil on my leg.” In order to survive, Su Tao, who had never had to do any kitchen duties while she was growing up, was forced to set aside her painting brush, pick up pots and pans, and learn to cook from scratch. She took out a loan to take over a dilapidated Vietnamese restaurant which she renamed “Le Lotus Bleu” (“The Blue Lotus”), and it quickly became a gathering place for local Chinese.

Blood and tears bring good luck

Having won some breathing space economically, Su Tao’s long-buried artistic spirit again came to the surface. She did further study in the department of oil painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, and also studied theory of contemporary art at the Free University of Brussels and at Ghent University.

Su Tao has never shied away from hard work. In 1982, she won a bronze medal at a European artists exhibition in Brussels.

Deep in the night when all was quiet, Su Tao once stood at her painting table and looked with concentration into the pitch darkness outside the window. “Black is at the root of humanity.” This sudden realization allowed her take all her gloominess and resolutely paint it out in bold strokes of black ink, taking this most taboo of colors and giving it full and vivid expression. Then she added square red seal imprints and pieces of gold leaf to find balance.

“What I wanted to express was an idea. Those squares and circles expressed my reflections about life and living.”

Su Tao (second from right in second row from rear) has always regarded the transmission of Chinese culture as a vocation, and has found joy in it for over 30 years. (courtesy of Su Tao)

“I made more than 100 paintings, though at the beginning no one came to see them,” she recounts. “But 1990 was a completely unexpected turning point.” Su Tao created a series of ethereal and metaphorically philosophical works using an Asian vocabulary, which amazed European art critics. “A la Rencontre du Zen” (“Encounters with Zen”), a piece of art criticism written about Su Tao’s work, immediately sent shockwaves through the contemporary arts scene, making her famous overnight.

Using a foundation of traditional ink-wash painting, she integrated—without any conflict—different materials in a free and unrestrained manner. She thereby constructed a distinctive style of her own.

Su Tao has unreservedly thrown her tenacious life force into artistic creation. Over the past half century, she has had 27 solo shows and taken part in countless joint and group exhibitions, and has even participated five times in the Lineart International Art Fair. The late Queen Fabi­ola of Belgium personally attended her shows. And the tension-filled decorative effect of her work has become beloved of European liquor makers and interior designers.

The “Yu-I Gallery” that Su Tao runs and the “Blue Lotus Salon” that she hosts often give opportunities for young artists to show their work. And she hasn’t forgotten to do something for her homeland either: She once invited 13 European contemporary artists to exhibit their work in southern Taiwan.

A leader in extolling Chinese culture

“Originally I just wanted to open an art gallery, but my friends all encouraged me to pass along my skills.” On Octo­ber 10, 1982, the Yu-I Gallery and the Yu-I Institute opened together. With their rich foundation in traditional Chinese culture, they have earned the ­respect and admiration of people from Western nations. The institute hires professional teachers to explain and demonstrate to students, and is very popular. It has also received the strong endorsement of Taiwan’s government agencies in charge of foreign and overseas compatriot affairs.

Su Tao assumes a classic pose, arms outstretched, standing between Heaven and Earth. (courtesy of Su Tao)

Ten years after establishing the Yu-I Institute, Su Tao opened the ­Chung-Hua School (affiliated with the institute), which as of today has been around for 24 years, to give students from even more age groups the chance to get instruction. Although the school teaches all manner of traditional arts and crafts, its real core is teaching life ethics, which is a never-ending endeavor.

“The school was the blood that pumped through my heart,” says Su Tao without reservation, standing in front of a work from the “Good Luck Is Shining” series that she began to create in 2008. “Every night I painted until dawn, then without even closing my eyes I had to hurry to see my own children off to school, and manage the institute and the school, and I also had to take care of the restaurant and handle the loans for the school. It was really a lot of pressure, so how could my heart not have blood pumping through it!” It really was a case of burning the candle at both ends, but still she had to look after everything.

These past few years, her kids all have gotten their own careers, and Su Tao’s life has gradually slowed down and become calmer.

When asked whether she will continue to paint in the future, Su Tao says heartily, “I definitely will, because I am crazy for painting, and I will paint until the day I simply can’t anymore.” She adds, “Blue is my lucky color.” In a series of 2017 works, birds are gently spreading their wings against a background of blue. The pain she once accumulated has turned to joy and been transformed into a rising morning sun, and good luck is shining down from above.