2016.0510
NTNU Chair Prof. Liu Kuo Sung Becomes Member of American Academy
The American Academy serves as a champion of scholarship, civil dialogue, and useful knowledge. As one of the country's oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, the Academy convenes leaders from the academic, business, and government sectors to respond to the challenges facing the nation and the world. Recently, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced its new members in 2016 with a total number of 213 people from 17 countries. Liu Kuo Sung is one of them. As a chair professor in NTNU and an alumnus from the Department of Fine Arts, he is the first Taiwanese member in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Liu, now 84, is universally honored as the earliest and most important advocate of modernist Chinese painting. He graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, Taiwan Provincial University of Education (now National Taiwan Normal University). Liu Kuo-Sung initiated the establishment of the “Fifth Moon Group” to promote modern art movement, and to bring a new look to the traditional Chinese painting. Liu together with other co-founders introduced Western art concepts and techniques into Chinese ink painting. He was also named “the father of modern ink painting.”
Being selected as the member is one of the most prestigious honor in the academic field in the states. The first president was the second President of the United States and the first Vice President John Adams. At the moment, there are 4000 members in this academy, more than 600 foreign members with about 250 Nobel laureate and 60 Pulitzer winners.
Established in 1780, American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for policy research in the United States. Election to the Academy is considered one of the nation's highest honors since its founding during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, and other scholar-patriots who contributed prominently to the establishment of the new nation, its government, and its Constitution.