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President Tsai Ing-wen recommends 'The Everlasting Bloom – Rediscovering Taiwanese Modern Art' exhibition

  • Date:2020-12-21
President Tsai Ing-wen recommends 'The Everlasting Bloom – Rediscovering Taiwanese Modern Art' exhibition

President Tsai Ing-wen recommended "The Everlasting Bloom – Rediscovering Taiwanese Modern Art" exhibition which is currently on display at the Museum of National Taipei University of Education (MoNTUE), saying that the artworks by Taiwanese and Japanese artists in the early 20 century have transcended time and continued to shine through today.

President Tsai visited the exhibition on Dec. 21 and she revealed on Facebook about the visit, which was not a public itinerary.

Saying that people interested in fine art should not miss out the exhibition of artworks by 47 Taiwanese and Japanese artists which will last until Jan. 17 next year, President Tsai noted that Taiwanese modern art began to flourish in the 1920s, when the first generation of Taiwanese art students went abroad to study in Japan or Europe. Earnest and dedicated, they expected that their artistic pursuit would inspire the Taiwanese people. Breaking through the confinement, these art students at the time have brought representative artworks of Taiwan to a bigger stage.

"These young people, including Tang Ting-pho (陳澄波), Huang Tu-shui (黃土水), Yen Shui-long (顏水龍), Chen Zhiqi (陳植棋) later became established artists that we are familiar with," President Tsai said, adding that the artworks that they created in their 20s and 30s have transcend time and continued to shine through today.

She noted that while listening carefully to the guide, she learnt the stories of the artworks regarding not only the creation, but also the process of collecting, rediscovering and restoring. Some works which were sold were rediscovered inadvertently by descendants of artists, and some others were found to have been kept in warehouses and forgotten for years. Thanks to the relentless efforts of researchers, these artworks were finally brought back from obscurity. Among the artworks on display, some were brought back from Japan for the first time for the exhibition.

President Tsai thanked professor Lin Mun-lee (林曼麗), Professor Yen Chuan-ying (顏娟英) and their team, as well as the many domestic and international organizations for curating and supporting this meaningful exhibition, adding that she looks forward to the continuation of the "Reconstruction of Taiwan’s Art History" initiative, allowing Taiwan's arts to pass on and flourish.