The compilation of this book began to take shape in 2016, when Asia Art Center organized the exhibition 1960: The Origin of Taiwan’s Modern Art. During the research on the history of Taiwanese art societies, we observed that the lives of many postwar art group members were inseparable from their artistic achievements and development. The surging artistic currents of the 1960s also left behind many precious historical documents. However, with the rapid changes and developments of the times, these invaluable records have gradually faded from public view. Moreover, within art historical research, works that interlink an artist’s life with the trajectory of their creative practice are still rare.
In early 2017, Asia Art Center held The Eternal Abstract: Fong Chung-Ray Solo Exhibition. Subsequently, through a fortunate convergence of circumstances, we had the honor of inviting Professor PAN An-yi, Associate Professor in the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies at Cornell University, to undertake the research and writing for this book. Beginning in 2018, Professor Pan made multiple visits to FONG Chung Ray's residence and studio for interviews and research, traveling repeatedly between Taiwan and the United States. He conducted extensive research in major libraries and archives, collecting, organizing, and synthesizing crucial historical materials related to the development of Taiwanese art since the 1960s. By the spring of 2019, he had completed the manuscript for this book.
Professor Pan's meticulous research methods, elegant and fluent writing style, and original perspectives free from convention allow us to reexamine FONG's lifelong artistic practice from a fresh vantage point. The successful publication of this book is made possible thanks to the generous contributions of Professor FONG Chung Ray himself and his family, the family of Professor HU Chi-Chung, as well as Mr. Frederick L. Gordon. They provided numerous valuable historical documents, photographic archives, and images of artworks during the preparation of this publication, greatly enriching its content.
