About the Artist

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Hung Jui-Lin (1912–1996) was born in the Dadaocheng area of Taipei during the Japanese colonial period. His father, a scholar proficient in Chinese studies and skilled in painting plum blossoms, greatly influenced his interest in painting. In his youth, Hung Jui-Lin studied drawing and other painting techniques at the "Taiwan Painting Research Institute" under the direction of Ni Jiang-Huai. In 1930, he went to Japan to continue his studies and graduated from the Imperial Art School of Japan. After returning to Taiwan in 1938, Hung Jui-Lin joined the Ruifang coal mine managed by Ni Jiang-Huai, where he began to record, depict, and celebrate the lives of miners through his paintings until his retirement from the mining industry in 1972.

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For nearly 30 years, Hung Jui-Lin's existence remained largely unknown, until the rise of the indigenous movement in the 1970s. Driven by intellectuals and through reports, features, and exhibitions, his works suddenly garnered significant attention in 1979. Although his rise in the art world was somewhat accidental, his sincere depiction of laborers over thirty years remains invaluable.