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Keywords

Taiwan , portrait

The five phases of Chiang Kai-shek

Title: The five phases of Chiang Kai-shek
Artist: Wu Tien-chang 吳天章
Created: 1991
Media: oil on canvas
Source: Courtesy of Wu Tien-chang
Notes:

Wu's images of Chiang Kai-shek (together with other Chinese and Taiwan-based authoritarian leaders) were first unveiled in 1990, at a time when reflection on the role of Chiang was still a highly sensitive topic. The work of this artist, who had started his career designing cover art for opposition publications in the martial-law era, was some of the first in Taiwan to critically explore the legacy of official Chiang icnonography.