In 1995, Huang Tsai-lang created a large oil painting (100F), titled Rainbow – KMFA After the Rain, which became a powerful symbol of the newly inaugurated Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. The rainbow marked the beginning of a new artistic chapter in southern Taiwan and represented Huang’s lifelong creative journey. Known for his dual roles as an art administrator and artist, Huang has served as director of three public art museums across northern, central, and southern Taiwan, setting a notable record in Taiwan’s art history. However, behind his administrative successes, he remains a dedicated painter at heart. Thirty years later, he returns to KMFA as an artist, once again expressing his view of the flow of time and life through his brush. After the Rainbow symbolizes both a reflection on his past achievements and a renewed sense of creative purpose.

 

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Exhibition Introduction
 
Text | Wu Hui-fang (Senior Curator, Exhibition Department, KMFA)
 
 
Huang Tsai-lang was appointed as the director of the Preparatory Office for the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA) in 1992. After the museum opened in 1994, he served as the inaugural director. Subsequently, he created a large-scale painting (100F) titled Rainbow - KMFA After the Rain (1995), which employs the monumental imagery of “rainbow – KMFA after the rain” to symbolize the museum’s grandeur. Today, thirty years later, Huang has returned to the KMFA as an artist, bringing with him fifty years of artistic work that reflect his deep connection to the museum.
 
Huang embodies the dual roles of arts administrator and artist, playing a key part in shaping the postwar development of Taiwanese art. He served as the director of three major public art museums in Taiwan—the KMFA, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts—setting a record in Taiwan’s art administration history. Despite this administrative success, his quiet yet enduring spirit as a painter remains active. With solid sketches and expressive oils, he depicts his view of life, nature, and time. This exhibition continues Huang’s theme and spirit of “After the Rainbow”: it showcases his return from arts administration to artistic creation, transforming the brush once again into a connecting bridge between spirit and land.
 
Huang employs a distinctive vocabulary of “underpinning oils with sketches,” developing a visual language that blends reality and lyricism. His brushwork merges the solid structure of sketches with the fluidity and breathing rhythm of oils—reflecting how his life combines the rationality of arts administration with the sensibility of artistic creation. From Self-Portrait to the Reed Series, from Devil’s Ivy to Sugar Cane Field, his canvases showcase both the disciplined accuracy of form and a gentle perspective on life.
 
Thirty years later, the artist returns, with his paintings, to the place he personally brought into existence. This “return” signifies more than just the cyclic passage of time; it also reflects a shift in identity and spirit—from director to artist, from administrator to observer. “After the Rainbow” captures not only the peaceful sky following the colorful spectrum but also marks a journey through institutions and emotions: an artist’s renewed perspective amid history, personal life, and his times.
 
This exhibition is more than just a retrospective of an individual artist; it is a shared historical reflection created with the KMFA. As visitors explore the exhibition, they will discover that the “rainbow” is no longer just a symbol of the sky, but represents continuity—from administration to creation, from past to present, from individual to collective. “After the Rainbow” is Huang’s chronicle of time and the KMFA’s mirrors of spirit. Beyond that rainbow, the light persists, so do the paintings, and the stories continue to unfold.
 
The curatorial framework focuses on the “light of time,” organizing the exhibition into four thematic sections:
 
I. Memory of Light: Outdoor Sketching and Landscapes
This section discusses Huang Tsai-lang’s perspective on nature and the documentation of the land. Using nature as a mirror, he observes time and land through en plein air sketches and paintings. From the fields and islands of the 1970s to the sugar cane fields of his later years, Huang’s canvases express his tender affections for his homeland and life. Notable works include The Jiali Church, Penghu Impression, the Reed Series, and the Sugar Cane Farm Series.
 
II. Breath of Still Life: Poetry of Form and Light
In this section, viewers can observe Huang Tsai-lang’s poetic perspective on everyday life through the use of form and light. Using structures of sketches and layers of oils, he captures peaceful, tranquil moments in life . The interplay of light and shadow on the canvas resembles traces of time passing in daily scenes. Notable series include the Tangerine Series, the Lily Series, the Devil’s Ivy Series, and the Narcissus Series.
 
III. Self and Gaze: Figures and Self-Portraits
This section examines how Huang Tsai-lang explores themes of self and existence through his drawings and paintings. Confronting himself directly, he portrays deep feelings of solitude and being. These works serve as both artistic experiments and soulful self-reflections, with notable pieces including the Self-Portrait Series and the Figure Series.
 
IV. Gifts: Friendships between Huang Tsai-lang and Local Artists
This exhibition reflects on Huang Tsai-lang’s friendships with local artists and their cultural heritage. It features a selection of works donated to the KMFA by artists during Huang’s directorship. These works are part of the museum’s cultural treasures and symbolize the bond within the art community.

 

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Artist's Statement

Huang Tsai-lang
 
After the exhibition Lingering, I have continued painting familiar subjects, including tangerines, narcissuses, wax apples, lilies, devil’s ivy, and sugar cane fields. I work slowly. When I struggle to find a subject to paint, I make self-portraits and repeatedly create sketches from life. Sometimes, I paint two versions of the same object—one as a sketch and the other in oil. I often repaint the same image three or four times, each with a different result. I aim to re-examine my work, gain insights, and then repaint it through new work. Since I sometimes find my earlier works unsatisfactory, I want to explore new expressions, stimuli, textures, and compositional approaches. When I repaint familiar subjects like tangerines, narcissuses, devil’s ivy, and wax apples, each one becomes vivid, with a strong form and clear visual weight. The variations fascinate me as I observe the nuances in tiny details, structural connections, and spatial arrangements that form their interrelations. As long as the aesthetic atmosphere moves me deeply, I try to capture that feeling and express it in my work. In creation, by seizing that initial emotional moment and amplifying it, the work gains expressive power and emotional depth.
 
I am fond of black. Anything can be a subject for depiction, and in each series I produce multiple pieces, creating various spatial arrangements or surreal scenes in hopes of capturing the unique mood of each subject. I am drawn to the monochrome expression of sketches, especially the wide range of possibilities in pencil strokes and tonal gradations of charcoal—within black, there is white, and vice versa. Depictions of tangerines, narcissuses, sugar cane fields, and figures can be seen as embodying the magic of black, vividly conveying a fleeting moment of beauty. In art history, Six Persimmons by Muxi can be understood through the lens of black-and-white coloration. Black and white hold endless richness. By examining each subject this way, one can appreciate the beauty of the work.
 
En plein air sketching is an activity I treasure. Outdoors, I encounter the natural environment with its changing weather, layered colors, and varying light, observing depth and distance both near and far. Indoors, tiny leaves and fruits also display their own textures—each with its own structure and features to be captured, and all are objects perfect for peaceful observation. Through repeated, careful study, the subject’s natural character gradually emerges and can be painted.
 
In each series, I create multiple pieces, arranging them in various configurations to effectively capture each subject’s character. I work to blend simple materials to evoke a different artistic conception.
 
Narcissuses (collection of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum), the Ginger Lily sketch series, and the triptych Red Sugar Cane Farm (collection of the Tainan Art Museum) convey this artistic conception.
 
Rainbow – KMFA After the Rain conveys my best wishes to the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. Everlasting River portrays the Zengwen River estuary at Shifen in Qigu District, Tainan. The river originates in the Central Mountain Range, the island’s sacred guardian mountains. It flows for 138.47 kilometers through Chiayi and Tainan, finally reaching the sea at the estuary in Annan District. I visited the site several times, and during the creation process, I synchronized the painting’s rhythm with my breathing. These moments intensified my sense of returning home. The works are displayed as a series of connected pieces, each depicting dusk, a clear day, dense fog, and a night scene. 

 

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Supervisor | Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Kaohsiung City Government
Organizer | Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
Designated Transportation & Exhibition Installation｜Crown Van Lines Co., Ltd
Support｜Advanced International Multitech Co., Ltd.
Media Partner｜Artist Magazine

Curator | Wu Hui-fang
Exhibition Executives | Lee Ming-shiuan