Ho Kan
(Nanjing, 1932)
Ho Kan was a founding member of the pivotal “Ton Fan Art Group,” where he was instrumental to the development of modern art in Taiwan. Ho was born in Nanjing, China in 1932, and graduated from Taipei Teacher’s School Department of Art in 1953. He then studied extensively in Milan, during which time he established his unique approach towards geometric abstraction where Eastern calligraphy and seal carving is poetically integrated. He started from the most simple but universal elements of □, △, and ○ to create his own lexicon in the arrangement of image and shape -- embedding eastern philosophy in the western framework of abstraction, resulting in a forward-looking and universal aesthetic. Ho Kan remains a central figure in Taiwan's history of abstraction.