Chinese Name: 臺北市立美術館
Location: Taipei City (Northern Taiwan)
Date of Establishment: 1983
Official Website: https://www.tfam.museum/index.aspx?ddlLang=en-us
Did You Know?
The Taipei Fine Arts Museum is one of the oldest museums in Asia, dedicated to the collection, research, education, and exhibition of modern and contemporary art, as well as the development of the modern and contemporary art scene in Taiwan. In its nearly 40-year history, the museum has not only promoted the vitality of modern art in Taiwan but also kept in sync with the pulse of international contemporary art. Since 1998, the Taipei Biennial has been held at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, making it one of the oldest biennials in Asia. In addition, the museum has organized the Taiwan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale since 1995.
The Taipei Fine Arts Museum was the first public modern art museum in Taiwan. It was completed and opened to the public in 1983. The building was designed and supervised by the architecture firm of Kao Erh-pan (高而潘). The exterior of the building adopts a grey-white minimalist style, with a three-story high ceiling in the lobby, and an Eastern traditional architectural element, the dougong (斗拱), stacked into the main structure in a shape of hashtag using a cantilevered flying corridor. The walls surrounding the building are made entirely of glass, providing ample lighting for the central courtyard. The interplay of light and shadow changes with time, making the courtyard more natural and vivid. Architect Kao Erh-Pan once said, "The architects have completed 70%, leaving 30% to the artists." This allowed the Taipei Fine Arts Museum to become a museum that not only has a simple design but also the potential for expansion and sustainable growth.
In addition to the main building, the Wang Da-Hong House Theatre (王大閎建築劇場) located in the Art Park on the south side of the museum is a reconstruction of the architect Wang Da-hong (王大閎)’s own residence and began operations in 2018. The museum hopes this venue will become an experimental platform for promoting Taiwan's architectural history and introducing architectural aesthetics. To keep up with the development and evolution of art, the Taipei City Government has launched an expansion project for the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, which is expected to add a new building on the ground level and two underground levels at the Art Park.
The mission of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum is to promote the research, development, and popularization of Taiwanese modern art, to enhance the public's awareness and participation in contemporary art, and to cultivate a society with a more enriched artistic and cultural literacy. To achieve this goal, the museum organizes various contemporary art exhibitions, disseminates art information, and provides encouragement to Taiwanese academic and art industries.
Since its establishment, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum has organized the annual Taipei Art Awards, a visual arts competition, to discover more potential artists. It is one of Taiwan’s most forward-looking and influential art awards, encouraging the creation of contemporary art that is unique and has a strong sense of the times. This award aims to stimulate diverse thinking and creative energy in the arts.
In 1998, the Taipei Biennial was launched at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum with the aim of connecting local and international perspectives and responding to contemporary art trends and issues from aesthetic, social, and economic viewpoints. The biennial not only enhances the visibility of Taiwanese contemporary art on the international stage but also serves as a driving force for promoting international cultural dialogue. The Taiwan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which the Taipei Fine Arts Museum participates in every year, is also an important platform for Taiwan’s dialogue and exchange with the international art world. In addition to showcasing the development trends of Taiwan's cultural aesthetics, the uniqueness of Taiwan makes the Taiwan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale a significant focal point for imagining Taiwan’s subjectivity.
The Taipei Fine Arts Museum currently has a collection of over 5,000 artworks, consisting mainly of representative and creative works by important domestic and international artists since the 20th century, supplemented by 19th-century works. It hopes to continue the legacy of the National Palace Museum’s collection of cultural relics and present a collection with both Taiwanese art historical characteristics and modern features. In addition, the museum is committed to researching and organizing materials related to Taiwan's contemporary art history, promoting the dissemination of art knowledge through document archives and book publications, and promoting the popularization of art. It also hopes that, through exhibitions and various educational outreach activities, people’s feelings and imaginations would be inspired and that art and culture would be an integral part of people’s lives.