Modern Artist VI　
Long Chinsan Photographs: Composite Tradition

The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum holds the sixth exhibition of the Modern Artists Series, which introduces an individual artist or group who played a pioneering role in the development of modern art in Asia.  This exhibition features a photographer, Long Chingsan (1892–1995) who worked mainly in Shanghai and Taipei.

Working as a photo-journalist for a newspaper company and advertising business, Long started to take artistic photographs and took part in the setting up of the Huashe [Photographic Society of China] in 1928.  In 1930s, while Long began to send his works to international Salons around world, he started to create photographs with photomontage that is the technique to print images from several negatives, such as mountains, trees, people and animals separately shot, in one photograph.  For these composite photograph, Long received a high reputation as a representative photographer in Chinese communities.  Even after moving to Taipei in 1950, Long continued to show his works in many parts of the world.  At the time of the establishment of Federation of Asian Photographic Art in 1966, he assumed the position of the president and contributed to exchanges among Asian photographers.

Differed from usual documentary photographs, Long’s works, which can be regarded as an ultimate form of Chinese Pictorialism, represented a solution to the issues commonly observed in Asian art such as “contemporary revival of traditional arts” and “introducing Chinese-ness to the international audience,” to the extent of reviving traditional aesthetics of Chinese traditional paintings, with employing modern photographic technology.  Therewith, it can be stated that his photographs have predicted the contemporary world in which photographs and moving images are composed and edited at will by the development of digital technology.

This exhibition, which is the first comprehensive solo show in Japan, will still inspire viewers with the fresh surprise and impression through the deep spiritual nature, excellent creativity and pioneer spirit.