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Juror's Statement, Printmaking Category Chen, Kuo-Chan

Modern Taiwanese printmaking was introduced to Taiwan 40 years ago in 1974 by Mr. Liao Hsiu-Ping. Printmaking includes
intaglio, relief, lithographic and porous printing styles, which were successfully balanced with woodcutting and quite trendy at that
time. After the turn of the century, thanks to the fast growth of the Internet, digital and single-brush printmaking have been added
as other printmaking options. Meanwhile, the government has offered its full support to promote printmaking, launching both
public and private printmaking exhibitions to solicit works and present awards. Such events include The International Biennial Print
Exhibition of the ROC, Chinese New Year Printmaking Exhibition of the ROC, among others. Furthermore, in order to stay abreast
of global printmaking art trends the Taiwanese government has been holding large academic-exchange forums, inviting famous
printmaking artists to visit Taiwan to compete, share their experiences and teach others their printmaking skills. Advancing the
quality and quantity of local printmaking works via such events, while at the same time raising the awareness of this art form through
arts education activities, is a great goal for Taiwan.

Now we can gain a better understanding of international prints through the Nine-Nation Printmaking Exchange Exhibit of
Asia organized by the Pingtung Art Museum. While we have found the size of printmaking works to be bigger than ever, execution
remains very detailed and delicate. We can also observe that plates are no longer restricted to wood, as the usage of a broad variety of
materials to create plates has emerged. For instance, there is no doubt that digital printing will soon be widely accepted because of its
convenience and uniqueness. Therefore, printmaking today can be as varied as an unpolished piece of jade or the image of a highbred
belle.

The Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition of Taichung City is another showcase for Taiwanese printmaking. Few artists have won
the Da Dun Prize over 18 years and the prestige of this award means that winners continue working hard on their projects and
efforts to promote their works. The judging system is absolutely fair and discreet and there isn t any preference toward any kind of
printing style or nationality. Rather, all submissions are judged and chosen on the merits of the works themselves. Accordingly, the
affirmation provided to prize winners is a significant stepping stone towards artists futures.

This year, the printmaking category received 59 submissions. During the preliminary one-month review we chose nine works
for the final review and then decided the top three prizes and two Award of Merit winners through voting and discussion. The judges
were Lin Chang-De, Tung Chen-Ping, Yang Ming-Dye, Lin Chih-Hsin and Chen Kuo-Chan. Below are their statements.

Yu Ya-Lan s First Prize winner, The Night Starts Here , is a relief printing. She applied a plate for all of the copies onto a
large panel of poplar wood, and at last process, she used ink to cover the whole wood. The image has a unique elegance. The strong
inspiration of the warmth of the dawning sun, the green grass and colorful flowers blossoming with the morning dew, and the sound
of a flowing river inspired the creator s strong green consciousness, along with a persistent desire to protect the environment. She
chose the topic from the most unforgettable memory of her childhood a farm village and brought her skills into full play with
every cut she made. Furthermore, she used abundant folk elements to increase the work s layers to illustrate the loneliness of the
virtue image. This is a rare masterpiece.

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