Li Fang

Li Fang graduated in 1955 from the Taiwan Provincial Normal College (now National Taiwan Normal University). In 1957, together with Liu Kuo-sung and Kuo Tung-jung, she co-founded the Fifth Moon Group, becoming one of the most important Chinese female artists advocating the modernization and abstraction of Chinese art. In 1959, recommended by Chu Teh-chun, she went to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. After her marriage, she settled in the Swiss mountains with her husband, the Swiss artist Hans Brun. Their simple and tranquil lifestyle profoundly shaped her distinctive artistic style.

Li Fang’s early works are characterized by bold brushstrokes and rich, textured colors that merge the essence of traditional Chinese ink painting with Western modern art. From the 1970s onward, her works returned to depicting nature, expressing poetic elegance through intricate brushwork and bright, lucid tones.

Li Fang participated in the major exhibition Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1949–1970 at Whitechapel Gallery, London. Her works are now part of significant international museum collections, including M+ in Hong Kong, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Arts Education Center, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and FAMM in France.