Wang Pan-yuan (王攀元)/file photo

Taipei, Dec. 22 (CNA) Nationally renowned master painter Wang Pan-yuan (王攀元) passed away at the age of 109 on Friday, according to the Ministry of Culture (MOC).

Wang passed away at home due to multiple organ failure, his daughter said, noting that her father was hospitalized recently for over a month for complications from pulmonary infection.

Culture Minister Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said Wang was an important literati painter of the times whose lifetime of work has contributed to some of the most important chapters of Taiwan's art history.

Culture Minister Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君)/CNA file photo

"Even though he has left us, his artistic life is eternal," Cheng said.

Wang was born in Jiangsu province and spent most of his early years in a war-torn environment. He came to Taiwan in 1949 and lived in the Lanyang Plain in Yilan County in northeastern Taiwan.

In 1961, Wang and his friends formed an art group in Yilan, where he concentrated on his painting and had a significant impact on the country's art development.

Wang received a National Award of Art from the National Culture and Arts Foundation and an Art and Business Award from the Ministry of Culture.

The National Museum of History will exhibit 150 of Wang's works including oil paintings, watercolors, and Chinese brush drawings and ink and wash paintings from May 4 to July 1 next year.

(By Lo Yuan-shao and William Yen)
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