THE IMPRINTS OF A GENIUS
A novel by
Chinghuey Tiao
Elite Books
Introduction
(Tr. By C.Tiao)
In the year of 2018 , after visiting Sanyu Retrospective Art Exhibition at Eslite
Gallery in Taipei, Chinghuey Tiao wrote a poem titled Secrecy, Sanyu, in which she revealed her discomfort of a French dealer
being hailed as Sanyu’s “Bole”--the very person who recognized Sanyu’s genius
and established the artist’s fame then and the status now; thus, she uses a
novelist’s license to reconstruct the artist’s legend in her book.
The time frame of this fiction starts from 1920’s ,
the end of the Belle Epoque Paris, to 2018’s Ottawa; the theatrical tour transports
in Berlin, Paris, Shanghai ,New York and interspersed with the impressions of
Japan and India.
The fictitious character LuYu , as the incarnation
of Sanyu, walks us through the eras of magnificence, we witness an Asian
painter indulged himself in the deluge of Western art world with complacency,
then being drifted apart in wrench.
Reality is furnished by imaginations, writer Chinghuey
Tiao, an artist herself , tries to use the literature quality to probe the artist’s
riddle-ridden life，cast out a doubt,
and search for a probable answer.
(Easter 2020)
A special thanks to Mr. YinDi（隱地）, a well-established writer/poet and one of the
most reputable publishers in Taiwan, who brings this beautiful book into
reality.
Elite Books
爾雅出版《天才的印記-常玉外傳》
爾雅出版社推薦語
畫家刁卿蕙於二0一八年在誠品畫廊觀賞了「細看常玉」展後，寫下了一首題為〈藏語，常玉〉的詩，尤其對法國畫商被譽為常玉伯樂的說法感到難以釋懷，遂以小說筆法重構其傳奇人生。
書中人物虛實並存，時間軸從1920年巴黎的美好年代至2018年的加拿大，場景穿梭於柏林，巴黎，上海與紐約，間雜東京和印度的印象，跟著書中主角陸瑜—常玉的化身，讓我們彷彿走進那個多彩的大時代，看到一位東方畫家，在西方藝術界顛沛中的自得，流離裡的揪心。
想像中有真實，學畫習畫評畫的刁卿蕙試著以小說之筆，為畫家奇離迷幻的一生，提出謎題，也尋找答案。
(April 2020)
