Augustin Tzen was born in Fujian Province. He studied in Taiwan, Japan and France before setting in the United States. Tzen belongs the the first generation of Taiwanese film artists. Whole in France, he took part in there creative practices of conceptualism and Fluxus. His films and photographs from the 1960s made skills use of the multiple techniques, methods and forms that would not be used in Mainland China for another 30 years, and he applied them to cultural criticism of the spectacle society. Then has lived in Europe and America for many years, and his works are marked by a powerful concern for life and philosophical reflection on art, fusing the transcendent spiritual qualities of the traditional Chinese literati with the keen logic of the western intellectual. Tzen believes that art can liberate humanity. But the significance and value of art is determined by the social circumstances of its creation, acceptance and use. In the so called civilized world of heavily fortified ideologies, though art is a code for international communication, it lacks universal forms and meanings. Through modern and contemporary artistic self-practice and proactive innovation, Tzen demonstrates that only art with a specific social context can become a relevant and appropriate tool for communication. Only when art is implemented as action in reality can it change and reconstruct the social order and rules and release the potential of society and individuals. Augustin Tzen is an activist artist through and through. The mass of visual texts he has accumulated represent constantly progressing thoughts and actions, and show an artist’s transcendence of the limitations of humanity.
-學歷
1967 台北國立師範大學美術系畢業
1971 入法國巴黎大學藝術學院
1972 巴黎高等社會實踐學院博士班進修
-參展紀錄
1964 參加台灣省展
1965 入選青文展
1966 台北市精工社畫廊個展
1967 國立師範大學美術系學士學位畢業
畫外畫會在省立博物館展出
1968 畫外畫展第二次展出
1969 耕莘文教院第三屆畫外畫展
台南市文教中心個展
1970 畫外畫展台北國軍文藝中心展出
1971 耕莘文教院個展
畫外畫會中美文經協會展出
1972 參加塞納畫廊群展
1973 巴黎國際藝術學會展出
1974 法國洛河市「25國際藝術展」展出
巴黎國際藝術學會「今日藝術」展出
1975 巴黎美特阿部畫廊個展
1976 參加紐約市日本大俱樂部畫展
1977 紐約聖約翰大學華裔畫家聯展
1978 巴黎國立圖書館主辦「充實展」展出
1979 台灣國立藝術館「海外華裔藝術家聯展」
1985 參加日內瓦雷門畫廊群展
1986 參加倫敦國際藝術展
1988 參加芝加哥國際藝術展
1990 美國康州內葛美術館個展
1991 台灣省立美術館個展
1992 紐約天理畫廊展出
1993 台北阿波羅畫廊個展
1994 台北市立美術館個展
1995 美國米尼索達大學美術館個展
1998 美國米尼索達大學美術館個展
紐約市台北藝廊展出
2000 英國倫敦伯樂行畫廊展出
2002 紐約市弗蘭克林畫廊展出
2003 紐約市摩尼格畫廊展出
2005 美國米尼索達大學美術館個展
2007 美國米尼索達大學美術館個展
2009 紐約預覽畫廊攝影錄像個展
2010 中國深圳畫院錄像個展
2011 北京荔空間個展
2013 東京畫廊個展
2015 台北阿波羅畫廊個展
2015 國立歷史博物館「曾仕猷七十回顧展」
2016 參加韓國濟州藝術博覽會
2017 黑森林藝術空間個展
2017 參加台北國際藝術博覽會
1944 Born in China
-Education
1967 BFA National Taiwan University
1971 Diplôme Superieure d’Arts, Ecole Beaux Art, Paris France
1975 Doctoral, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Science Economiques et Sociales, Paris, France
-Exhibition
1964 Taiwan Provincial Museum Exhibition, Taipei
1965 Ching-Wen Exhibition, Taipei
1966 Seikosha Gallery, One-man show, Taipei
1967 Grand prize, Graduation Exhibition, Taiwan University
Founded the Association of Fine Arts, Hua-Wai
1968 Hua-Wai 2nd Exhibition, Taipei
1969 Hua-Wai 3rd Exhibition, Taipei
Tainan Social and Exhibitional Institute, one man show
1970 Hua-Wai 4th Exhibition, Gaojun Culture Center, Taipei
1971 One-man show, Cardinal Tien Culture Education Center
5th Art Exhibition of Hua-Wai at the Sino-American Culture Center in Taipei
1972 One-man show, Galerie de Seine Paris
1973 Fine Art Exhibition, Cite International des Arts, Paris
1974 25 Peintres de Nationalities différentes, Le Préfet de Loire-et-Cher, France
Art d’aujurd’hui, Cite internationale des Arts, Paris
1975 One-man show, Maitre Albert Galeries, Paris
1976 Young artist group, Nippon Club, New York
1977 Chinese Artist in New York, St Jone’s University, New York
1978 Enrichissements, selected by Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
1979 Overseas Chinese Artists exhibition, National History Museum, Taipei
1985 Galeries Lehman, Geneva, Switzerland
1986 International Art Fair, London, England
1988 International Art Show, Chicago
1990 NECCA Museum (New England Center of Contemporary Art) Conn
1991 One-man show, National Taiwan Museum of Art, Taichung
1992 Tenri Gallery, New York
1993 Apollo Gallery, Taipei City Fine Arts Museum, Taipei
1995 William Whipple Gallery, Southwest States University, Minnesota
1998 Southwest States University Gallery, Minnesota
Taipei Gallery, New York
2000 The Bloxham Gallleries, London
2002 Freanklin-Peppermint Gallery, New York
2003 Monique Goldstrom Gallery, New York
2005 Southwest Minnesota State University Art Museum
2007 Southwest Minnesota State University Art Museum
2009 Chelsea Preview Gallery New York
2010 “Fire, Gold” Shenzhen Fine Arts Institute, one-man show
2011 Li Space Gallery, Beijing
2013 Tokyo Gallery,Beijing
2015 Solo exhibition at Apollo Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2015 “A Retrospective” National Museum of History, Taipei
2016 Participating Art Cosmopolitan, Jeju, Korea
2017 Solo exhibition at The Black Forest Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2017 Participating Art Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
藝術，望文生義，即才能與技術，符合人之精神活動。有些藝術本身並不單純，它包括的層面深且廣，處理到整個人性的問題，探討藝術的本質，包含啟發的功能，這樣的藝術本身衍生不息，也帶給其他藝術的泉源，所藉由引發的靈感。
藝術是自我的投射，在視覺想像中表現人的自尊自大，藝術也跟著潮流改變媒體，從社會性的主題去發掘人性的醜陋與可愛，無可否認，古典已經過去了，歷史不再重演，現代主義也過去了，我們活在二十世紀末反現代主義的後現代時期，在這藝術理論極為複雜混亂而流派氾濫的大時代裡，身為藝術工作者，堅守的一點，就是為藝術而生活。
我對前衛藝術感到興趣，不斷吸取新知，自由遊藝，從大學世代起，持續了二十多年，經過巴黎時期，到紐約後更達到極端的狂熱，認為藝術的形勢可在任何時空中完成。一個意念的發生與行動的完成可以縮短到最小的距離，生活裡面充滿了藝術。我除了保持部分的繪畫表現外，大部份的工作內容都以極玄奧的意識去肯定，超越了現實生活的束縛而解脫出來，這是我近年來對藝術的想法下的一個句點。
Having been engaged in the sole pursuit of the creation of art for the last thirty years, never once have I ceased clarifying my own artistic ideology, continuing to reflect upon that which I have learned through work and study; ever considering the principal prerequisite of art to be the affirmative awakening of humanity’s consciousness, recognizing the individual as the fundamental unit, even proceeding so far as to ascertain that once having disposed of unneeded things, in the absence of opposition to action taken through awareness, that then art must stem from a certain sort of ideas, ideas that penetrate mere feelings and technical skill to arrive at an acknowledged level of completion and fulfillment.
Art, taken in too literal a sense, assumes the existence of talent and expertise, in connection to basic human cultural activity. To have let alone produce such artistic creations in of themselves is no simple matter; it integrates numerous dimensions, both profound and vast. It is a question of disposing, of choosing, of selecting in order to become a complete human being, of inquiring into the essence of what constitutes art, of bearing with the fundamental process of prying open the minds and intelligence of men. This approach of art in itself quite naturally makes no concrete profit, as well as giving of itself to offer plentiful springs to others, through which the spiritual effect of art gains initiation.
Art is a projection of my own being, my self’ within the midst of the imagined vision lies the expression of human self-respect and self-importance. Likewise, art follow in the wake of currents transforming substance. Following society’s past nature, themes undertake to excavate ill-looking human nature as lovable, without asking if it will do or not to confess the truth. A quotation long ago uttered, states that History will not once again repeat itself; similarly contemporary views also already noted affirm that we live within a stretch of twenty centuries that will undoubtedly bring the reversal of contemporary doctrines in the aftermath of modern times. Within this, artistic theory has been pushed to extremes, effecting complex chaos and the trend of schools of thought to embrace overflowing principal truths of the era. I, personally, work in art, am an artistic worker, striving to securely maintain the smallest bit, even if conducting art as a livelihood.
Towards the artistic vanguard, I have ever felt drawn and supportive, never ceasing to assimilate fresh knowledge and ideas, leading myself through entertainment, following significant study of the age and history, managing to continue on for over twenty years. As a result of having gone through the period in Paris, and then encountering extreme fanaticism upon my move to New York City, I consider artistic shape and form to concur with what has been established at that time in the sky. The occurrence of a single ides’s manifestation through decisive action can be reduced to the merest distance between the inner world brimming with artistic potential and the external world that receives. In addition, I continue to preserve blocks of drawing and paintings from seemingly disconnected periods of my life, in evidence of the fact that even a major section of work left vacant within still uses to the limit the deep and profound senses that will ultimately be effectively confirmed, excelling and surpassing the binds of actual life from which one must continuously strive to extricate one’s being. What follows these comments mark the arrival of my chosen year to demonstrate regarding art what I have always and continue to have in mind.
