For three decades, the Taiwanese artist Lin Chih-chu (1917–2008) argued that Eastern gouache hails from China, not Japan. “The materials, ink, paper and both mineral and soil pigment in Japanese painting are virtually identical to that of Chinese,” he said. Not everyone agreed with Lin’s view. Focusing on both Eastern and Western gouache painting, the exhibition “Too Loud a Solitude” begins after W.W. II, when Chinese universities implemented gouache courses in their curriculum, and then maps out the various political and societal issues that have shaped the art form in Taiwan. —Elena Clavarino