Rediscovery Across Continents
In the history of postwar Taiwanese art, Lifang’s name has not always stood in the foreground. Yet she remains one of the very few Taiwanese women artists who truly crossed the boundaries of Asia, living and creating in Europe for over six decades. Her inclusion in the Whitechapel Gallery’s 2023 exhibition Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940–70 placed her alongside pioneering women artists from around the world. The exhibition marked a long-overdue international recognition of her practice, while also prompting reflection on the historical absence of Taiwanese women in postwar art narratives. [1]Touring later to France and Germany, it reintroduced Lifang’s name to both European and Asian audiences.
From Taipei to Paris: Beginnings of an Avant-Garde Vision
Born in Taipei in 1933, Lifang graduated from Taipei First Girls’ High School and continued her studies in fine arts at the National Taiwan Normal University. She honed her draftsmanship in the studio of Li Shih-Chiao, a formative mentor. In 1956, together with classmates Liu Kuo-Sung, Kuo Tong-Jong, and Kuo Yu-Lun, she organized the Four Artists Joint Exhibition and, under the encouragement of Liao Chi-Chun, co-founded the May Art Society—one of Taiwan’s most influential avant-garde movements. Modeled after the Salon de Mai in Paris, the group sought to challenge the island’s conservative art climate. Lifang’s early works, such as Cactus and Untitled (1957), already revealed a determined pursuit of abstraction.
In 1959, Lifang became the first Taiwanese woman artist to receive a French government scholarship to study in Paris, entering the École des Beaux-Arts. Immersed in the city’s postwar modernist currents, she developed a new visual language and exchanged ideas with artists such as Chu Teh-Chun. Her works from this period—Dragon and Phoenix in Harmony and Guerre des trois royaumes (War of the Three Kingdoms)—reinterpreted mythological and historical motifs through a contemporary lens. These early experiments later entered major collections, including the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and Hong Kong’s M+ Museum.
A Life in Switzerland: Art as Continuity
After marrying Swiss artist Hans Brun in 1962, Lifang settled in Switzerland, beginning a lifelong European chapter. Choosing to dedicate herself fully to art—a rare path for women of her generation—she and her husband built their home and studio, [2] “Zhilu,” in Castel San Pietro. Their daily life was modest and disciplined: he managed household chores; she cooked and painted. Each summer, their [3] son was cared for by his grandmother Berta, his aunt Dorly and his uncle Rudy Brun, giving Lifang the uninterrupted time she needed to work.
The early years were marked by perseverance. Without gallery representation, the couple exhibited independently, displaying works in banks, design shops, and local businesses. Gradually, they built a circle of supporters in Lausanne, and Lifang’s works began to enter private collections in Zurich and France, notably those of André Kahn-Wolf.
Bridging East and West
Lifang’s art evolved through constant experimentation. She sketched during travels, later transforming her impressions into large-scale oil paintings. Integrating the gestural qualities of ink and calligraphy with the structure of Western abstraction, she forged a style that transcended geography. By the late 1960s, after moving to Ticino near the Italian border, her palette grew lighter and freer, suffused with rhythm and color drawn from daily life—flowers, fruits, shifting seasons, and music. The romantic harmonies of Rachmaninoff and the improvisational energy of Miles Davis often resonated within her compositions.
[4]She personally feels that abstract painting seems to pursue “chance,” and that it cannot fully satisfy her demand for truth. From the 1970s onward, Lifang’s paintings embraced a sense of lyricism and light, merging abstraction and figuration through layered brushwork and vibrant hues. Her works embodied joy, serenity, and an intimate dialogue with nature. Throughout her decades in Europe, she continued to paint and exhibit without interruption—a quiet persistence that defined both her art and her life.
A Spirit of Gentleness and Strength
Those who knew Lifang often spoke of her gentle temperament and humility. She was described as “too kind,” easily taken advantage of, yet profoundly grounding to be around. Far from her homeland, she cultivated an inner world of independence and resilience, where art became both discipline and refuge.
Her son, Theobald Brun, recalls that after turning sixty, Lifang became even more liberated—painting and traveling with student groups across Europe, living closer to her artistic ideals. At first glance, her paintings appear tranquil, yet beneath their surface lies a force that transcends cultures. As the Whitechapel Gallery exhibition affirmed, Lifang’s art belongs not only to Taiwan or Switzerland, but to the broader global story of women who redefined abstraction in the postwar world.
Notes
1. Touring venues included the Van Gogh Foundation (France) and Kunsthalle Bielefeld (Germany).
2. “Zhilu” refers to the home and studio built by Lifang and Hans Brun in Castel San Pietro.
3. Their son, Theobald Brun (Li Zhi-Qiu).
4.“Seeking Plum Blossoms in the Snow — An Account of Visiting the Woman Painter Li Fangzhi,” an article written after a personal visit by the artist Hsin-Yueh Lin, published in Artist Magazine, Issue No. 37, December 1978.
Figure 1：Artist LiFang in the 80s
Figure 2：Trauben (Grapes), Oil on canvas 75x59cm 1967
Figure 2 (top right)：Fruit basket, Oil on canvas 80x80cm 1998
Figure 2 (middle right)：Astratto (abstract), Oil on canvas 38x38cm 1968
Figure 2 (bottom right)：Ciliege (cherry), Oil on canvas 38x64cm 1991
