The boundary of art faced repeated challenges in the 20th century. Concepts of contemporary art went hand in hand with all schools of critical philosophy and marked a distinctive chapter in art history. The most noticeable characteristic of contemporary art is its many challenges, guided by modern and post-modern thoughts, to the possibilities of art. Since 1960s, Mr. Tzen Sieur has been working on such experiments of art in Taiwan. He remains one of the earliest practitioners of the contemporary art in Taiwan.

Examining Tzen’s works, one can see his continual and avant-garde explorations of art from his early days in Hua-wai Association to his later studies in France, America, and China. Stimulated by different times and locations, Tzen created many border-crossing works; the creative thoughts and philosophy of life underlying these social-engaging works render him the best representative of the contemporary art. With unlimited creative concepts, Tzen has been seeking to strengthen the expressiveness of various artistic media; at the same time, he never deviate from his artistic ideal of engaging the humanity and society. The multiplicity and vicissitude of his artistic styles also represent different phases of contemporary art from 20th to 21st century. This retrospective is not merely his solo exhibition but also his proclamation and interpretation of the artist’s Self.

National Museum of History is honored to invite this persistent practitioner of contemporary art to present his Seventy’s Retrospective exhibition. There are many avant-garde artists, but few of them can look back to seven decades’ career of prodigious works. We design this exhibition to review different phases of contemporary art in Taiwan, to trace a complete itinerary of Tzen’s exploration in the contemporary art, and show the artistic qualities that had happened and are still happening.