Kuo Hsueh-Hu was born in Dadaocheng, Taipei, in 1908. He was admitted in the Department of Civil Engineering at the prestigious Taipei Industrial Institute in 1923. Yet, after one year of studies, he decided to withdraw from the Institute to focus more on painting. In 1927, Kuo and two other young painters, Chen Chin, and Lin Yu-Shan, were jointly selected for the “1st Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition” and later became known as the “Three Youths of Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition.” In addition to the artistic accomplishments during the Japanese colonial era, Kuo was also one of the first organizers of the Taiwan Provincial Fine Art Exhibition after Taiwan’s liberation from colonial rule. Kuo’s contribution to the promotion of arts and culture in Taiwan has been immense that he is considered as one of the most outstanding artists in Taiwanese art history. Throughout his lifetime, Kuo prioritized art over worldly interests, and once said: “My paintings are about the refinement not about the quantity.”

As a first-generation painter of gouache painting in Taiwan, Kuo was innovative and followed the idea of blending the concepts of traditional Chinese ink painting and Oriental painting in his creative work. He created his technique featured by intense colors and light ink outlines. He also thoroughly observed the forms of expression in Western art. In the early stage, the traditional style of gouache painting had already reached a broader and more diverse realm, yet after the war, due to the debates on the orthodox Chinese painting, gouache painting became marginalized. However, Kuo still insisted on using gouache as the primary medium to paint and even became an inspirational example for others to follow. Kuo was the pioneer and an influential promoter of gouache painting in Taiwan.