Chen Chi-kwan

Chen Chi-kwan (; 1921–2007) was a Taiwanese artist, architect, and educator, particularly for his paintings and architectural work for Tunghai University. He collaborated with I.M. Pei to design the Luce Memorial Chapel on the university campus, a hallmark of mid-century modernist architecture completed in 1963.

Biography Born in 1921 in Beijing (then known as Beiping), China. He attended Nanjing secondary school, Zhenjiang secondary school, and Zhongnan Middle School, National II. Chen's youth was strongly affected by the Second Sino-Japanese War and his family relocated in Chongqing, Sichuan Province. In 1950, he took classes at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Department of Art. Walter Gropius, recommended him as a part-time teacher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he taught from 1952 until 1954.

Chi-kwan often painted in watercolor, borrowing elements from traditional Chinese painting and applying them modern themes or Western style line work. Many of his works were abstract or depicted small landscapes. Harvard Art Museums, the British Museum, among others.

In 2004, Chen was one of the recipients of Taiwan's prestigious National Award for Arts. Judges said the "decorative colors, architectural lines and mystical spaces" in his paintings "inspired us to see our surroundings in a new light." To commemorate the 90th anniversary of his birth, a selection of Chen's paintings were displayed at the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

Key dates

1969, planned the overall design of the campus of the National Central University in Chungli. 1980, appointed Dean of Engineering at Ren Donghai University.