Abstract

This biographical and narrative study explores the work of Joseph Chen-ying Yen, an artist-scholar on the faculty of the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan, and examines its significance for the integrated teaching of art. The study examines his teaching, painting, writing , and scholarship, and considers how it synthesizes ideas from Taiwan, China, America, and Europe. Yen's ethos is shown to be that of the traditional Chinese literati brought forward and adapted for modern times. The study examines Yen's ethos as it is informed by Confucianism, Taoism, Ch'an Buddhism, existentialism, theatre of the absurd, modernism, and expressionist painting. Yen stands as a true poet-dramaturge-scholar-translator-professor-painter. The study examines the graduate program of interdisciplinary art set up by Yen at National Chen Kung University and examines its significance for the achievement of integrative art education in both Western and Eastern cultures