NTD concluded its 6th International Figure Painting Competition with an award ceremony at the Salmagundi Club in New York on Jan. 18.
A total of 60 entries from 20 countries around the world were selected for the final exhibition.
Silver Award-Winning Entry
The triptych “The Infinite Grace of Buddha” was created by three artists from Japan and Taiwan, and won the highest prize of this year’s competition, the Silver Award. The work demonstrated themes of contemporary mythological scenes.“The biggest challenge is that these paintings are very large,” said Silver Award winner, Shao-Han Tsai. “And then there are also many characters. At the beginning of the design process—in order to put all three paintings together as one—we had to put a lot of effort into the planning. Each of us probably has at least 20 to 30 sketches for each of our works.”
Innocence, Purity, and Beauty
As one of the top figure painting competitions in the world, the traditional artwork promotes the concepts of innocence, purity, and beauty.“This competition is really unique in that it places an emphasis on really [promoting] classical aesthetics and ideals of truth and beauty,” said Ken Goshen, who received an Honorable Mention.
The judges encouraged the contestants to continue to sharpen their skills while staying true to ideas and themes that will promote the return of tradition and inspire the minds of future generations.
“I’m really grateful that there’s a wonderful competition that NTD puts on that we can all get together and view and enjoy one another’s work, and it’s always worth it to come and it’s fantastic,” said Bronze Award winner John Darley.
