Taipei Travel

Donna Art has assembled a collection of limited edition prints from 2017 and 2018 featuring the renowned artist San Yu's works, collaborated on by the National Museum of History in Taipei, galleries, and businesses. These prints, themed around flowers and still life, are produced using museum-grade acid-free art paper and digital micro-spray technology. A selection of twenty-two exquisite prints is showcased in the "The Blossoms : Limit Print Edition Show of San Yu," inviting enthusiasts to appreciate the elegance and style in San Yu's paintings.

San Yu (1901-1966), a renowned Chinese master, was born in Nanchong, Sichuan, China (formerly known as Shunqing). He began studying painting with his father in his early years and later learned calligraphy from the calligrapher Zhao Xi. In 1921, he traveled to Paris to pursue artistic creation. His style fused Eastern ink painting forms with the visual aesthetics of Western Fauvism. Since the 1920s, San Yu's paintings have gained popularity worldwide, earning him the title of "Oriental Matisse" (referring to Henri Matisse, 1869-1954) in the global art scene.

In 1929, San Yu met Pierre-Henri Hoché, then one of Paris's major collectors, which brought attention and collection of his works in the French art world. He subsequently participated in several Autumn Salons and Independent Salons. The National Museum of History Taipei held three retrospectives of his works in 1978, 1984, and 1990 respectively. In 2001, for San Yu's centenary, the museum organized a major exhibition commemorating his life. In June 2004, the Guggenheim Museum of Art in the United States hosted a retrospective exhibition of San Yu's works, showcasing over sixty pieces. These exhibitions underscored his significance as an overseas Chinese artist in the Chinese art scene.

According to "The Complete Works of San Yu's Oil Paintings," his three major themes of creation were nudes, flowers, and animals. San Yu created a total of 133 flower paintings in his lifetime, with 55 focusing on chrysanthemums. Flowers were not only his attempt to carry forward the connotation of traditional literati painting but also a medium to metaphorize his life journey. Like the chrysanthemums depicted in his paintings, they often existed in bold compositions, filled with imaginative and surreal scenes, appearing proud and independent yet coexisting in the floral paradise of Paris. In the Asian contemporary art market, San Yu's floral-themed works have fetched astonishing prices, highlighting them as the most representative masterpieces in his body of work.