Taipei museum takes inclusive approach to promoting Taiwan artists

2020/08/31

Dedicated to showcasing homegrown artists from the 20th and 21st century, Taipei Fine Arts Museum is playing a crucial part in reshaping public perception of Taiwan’s art history.
 
 While TFAM has organized countless exhibitions paying tribute to well-known local artists since opening its doors in 1983, the Taipei City-based institution has also made a concentrated effort to introduce lesser-known talents to museumgoers.
 
“One of the museum’s primary goals is to educate visitors on key figures from the country’s art history that have faded from our collective memory,” said TFAM director Lin Ping.

Among recent shows aimed at fulfilling this mission is a three-month exhibition in 2019 titled “Herstory of Abstraction in East Asia,” which celebrated abstract artwork by Japanese, Korean and Taiwan women after World War II.
 
 This year the museum followed up with “An Opening Ending: Huang Hua-cheng,” a retrospective looking at the career of the avant-garde artist. The six-month show opened in May and is so named because critics are still debating Huang’s impact on the country’s artistic landscape more than 20 years after his death.
 
 To better catalogue Taiwan’s art history, TFAM established a unit for archiving a huge range of background documentation, from artists’ diaries and letters to materials related to organizing and promoting past exhibitions. Officially established in 2015, the TFAM Archive has greatly expanded the museum’s holdings and enhanced its efforts to deepen awareness of the country’s rich artistic past.

 
 According to Lin, TFAM is equally devoted to spotlighting young artists currently shaping the next chapter of Taiwan art. “Their works are noteworthy as they reflect the current social atmosphere while rethinking the history of Taiwan and challenging established values,” she said.
 
 TFAM’s role in portraying the country’s art story to visitors from around the world made it a natural choice for organizing the Taiwan Pavilion at the prestigious Venice Biennial, a task it has duly performed for over two decades. In 2019 the pavilion featured artist Shu Lea Cheang, whose works encourage discussions on queer and gender issues, at a time when Taiwan’s legalization of same-sex marriage, a first among Asian countries, was attracting global attention.
 
“Looking toward the future, TFAM will begin adding exhibition spaces focusing on interdisciplinary pieces,” Lin said. “The move is expected to significantly deepen the diversity of the museum’s offerings.”

Source: Taiwan Today (https://taiwantoday.tw/index.php)