Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition, which was first organized in 1927 (known as “Taiten”; ten editions were organized), marked the beginning of a new age in the development of Taiwanese fine arts. In 1938, the Department of Education, the Office of Taiwan Governor-General, took over the organization of the exhibition (renamed “Futen”; six editions were organized). The exhibition catalogues published back then have become important records of Taiwan’s art scenes during the Japanese Colonial period, as well as witnesses of the artistic developments of pioneering artists. However, most of the catalogues published during that time have gone missing through time, making it difficult for us to see the complete picture. To share with more readers these important historical documents of early fine arts development in Taiwan, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) launched the publication plan of “Taiten Reprinted – Classics Revisited” under the guidance and support of Ministry of Culture’s “Forward-Looking Infrastructure Development Program – Reconstruction of Taiwan’s Art History Project” in 2019, making use of contemporary digital technology and printing quality to republish the 16 volumes of exhibition catalogues of Taiten/Futen and bring back the classic works in Taiwan’s art history. Furthermore, to enhance the academic and research value of this publication plan, NTMoFA invited art historian, Professor Hsiao Chong-ray of National Cheng Kung University, to compile and investigate the works of Taiten/Futen, learning and understanding the current status of conservation. The results of the study was also published in a separate volume of the “Taiten/Futen Catalogue Reprinted” series in March 2020. To maximize the effect of the publication, and concretely and comprehensively exhibit the results of the research, NTMoFA presents the “Revisiting the Classics – Special Exhibition of Existing Works of Taiten and Futen” that features the existing works of Taiten/Futen; NTMoFA has compiled and collected the precious existing works and related historical documents that have been scattered in different places over the past century, and showcases them in the Toyoga (Eastern Painting) and Seiyoga (Western Painting) categories, which was how they were exhibited back then, reintroducing the classic works to the public and bringing back the grace and elegance of Taiwanese fine arts captured by Taiten/Futen in the first half of the 20th century.

Curatorial Advisor: Professor HSIAO Chong-Ray

Curator: Researcher LIN Ming-Hsien

Special Thanks to:

We would like to thank the following institutions and individuals for their generous assistance to the realization of this exhibition. We also want to express our sincere gratitude to those anonymous private collectors who have kindly lent their art to this exhibition.

Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Chen Cheng-po Cultural Foundation, Kuo Hsueh-Hu Foundation, Li Mei-Shu Memorial Gallery, Taiwan Soka Association, Lee Tze-Fan Memorial Art Gallery, National Museum of History, Lee Shih-Chiao Art Museum, Lin Chih-Chu Memorial, National Taiwan Museum, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Tainan Art Museum, Liang Gallery, Apollo Art Gallery, Pingtung County Government, Cultural Affairs Department of Pingtung County, Sotheby’s, WANG Yi-Hsing, WANG Ling-Yang, LU Wen, LIN Po-Ting, YAO CHIEN Hui-Mei, CHANG Kuang-Wen, Robert TSAO, Byron CHEN, CHEN Chun-An, PAN Yueh-Hsiung, CHIEN Shih-Shing, CHIEN Jen-Yu, CHIEN Shin-Jim, CHIEN Shi-Wen, CHIEN Se-Ping, CHIEN Heng-Kai, CHIEN Heng-Chih, CHIEN Chen-Chen, CHIEN Che-Fu, artists’ families and the anonymous collectors.