Arts as Imprints of the Times: Permanent Collection of the NTMoFA

(2025.4.1-7.6) Gallery 103-107, Gallery Street / (2025.8.9-12.14) Gallery 201
Fusion and Reconstruction: Global Perspectives and the Digital Wave Since 2000│Curator/ FENG Sheng-Hsuan

(2025.4.26-12.14) Gallery 301

Zhongyuan Style: Early Taiwanese Calligraphy and Paintings│Curator/ HUANG Tung-Fu
Revealing the Distinctiveness: The Local Flavor of Taiwanese Art in the Early 20th Century│Curator/ HSUEH Yen-Ling

(2025.4.26-12.14) Gallery 302

Waves and Impacts: Development of Taiwanese Art from 1945 to 1979│Curator/ LIN Chen-Ching

Clashes and Reflections: The Search for the Subjectivity of Taiwanese Art from 1980s to 1990s│Curator/ Tsai Chao-Yi

Organizer | National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

Curators |  HUANG Tung-Fu, HSUEH Yen-Ling, LIN Chen-Ching, TSAI Chao-Yi, FENG Sheng-Hsuan

    Standing as testimony to the preservation of artistic heritage for future generations, an art museum’s collection is emblematic of the museum’s core values and orientation. It is the responsibility of art museums to share and diffuse the knowledge of aesthetics and history by actively engaging the public with the contents of their static collections through dynamic activities such as exhibition, education, research, and interpretation, in which the significance of museum collections finds expression. The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) has built up its collection of 22,070 items over a period of 37 years from acquisition, donation, transfer, and call for competition entries. Its major collection dates from the 18th century to the present along with related archival material, forming a superb collection system rich in content. Over the years, the NTMoFA has organized dozens of themed exhibitions, dynastic history exhibitions, exhibitions on artists, and exhibitions of classic items related to its collection. All of them are vital cultural assets for the construction of Taiwan’s art history.

     Taiwan stepped onto the international stage during the Age of Discovery in the mid-16th century, serving as a transit hub where the East-West trade routes converged. However, the indigenous people have been living here since around 8,000 years ago, which marks the northernmost distribution of the Austronesian people. Centuries of colonization by different nations since the 17th century have shaped the resilient, optimistic, and open-minded character of the Taiwanese people. Bearing the signature of maritime culture, Taiwanese society shows an eclectic mix of various external cultures, which results in a kaleidoscope of landscapes that span different eras and make each shine more brilliantly in the other’s company. The course of Taiwanese art has directly or indirectly reflected its close relationships with the nautical charts and maps tied to this island and the illustrations of the indigenous people’s lifestyle in the Dutch-Spanish colonial period, the calligraphy and painting from the Min and Yue regions of China, modern Western art transplanted from Japan, and contemporary art introduced from the Occident after the end of the Second World War. They have gradually fused with one another and put down roots, finally culminating in the sui generis features of Taiwanese art.

     The exhibition “Arts as Imprints of the Times: Permanent Collection of the NTMoFA” is co-curated by Prof. HUANG Tung-Fu and four of our in-house research fellows, namely HSUEH Yen-Ling, LIN Chen-Ching, TSAI Chao-Yi, and FENG Sheng-Hsuan. The exhibition comprises five thematic areas, including (1) “Zhongyuan Style: Early Taiwanese Calligraphy and Paintings,” (2) “Revealing the Distinctiveness: The Local Flavor of Taiwanese Art in the Early 20th Century,” (3) “Waves and Impacts: Development of Taiwanese Art from 1945 to 1979,” (4) “Clashes and Reflections: The Search for the Subjectivity of Taiwanese Art from the 1980s to the 1990s,” and (5) “Fusion and Reconstruction: Global Perspectives and the Digital Wave Since 2000.” These thematic areas respectively set forth: (1) how the untrammeled nature of traditional paintings from the Ming and Qing dynasties in Taiwan reflected the pioneering spirit of the early reclamation period; (2) how Taiwanese painters in the Japanese colonial period shaped the consciousness of modernization and local identity through exploring the “local flavor” of Taiwan; (3) how Taiwanese art was influenced by occidental trends such as abstract art and pop art from the end of the Second World War to the 1970s when the nativist art movement reached its peak; (4) how Taiwanese art actively broke through barriers to tackle taboo topics and define Taiwan’s subjectivity after the lifting of martial law in the 1980s and the 1990s; and (5) how the re-demarcation of cultural geography has led to the reconstruction of individual and cultural identities since 2000 on the wave of globalization and information technology. Ethnic diversity and environmental protection have also become aspects of concern for Taiwanese artists. The exhibition as a whole fully demonstrates how artists from different periods interpreted the zeitgeists via sophisticated subject matters and techniques. It seeks to chart the course of Taiwan’s art history by displaying the items and archives in the NTMoFA’s collection as well as by collating and studying pertinent firsthand material. Furthermore, this exhibition employs a chronological approach to foreground how artistic creations have evolved with the change of the times and treats Taiwan as the subject to trace the development of Taiwanese art within the global context. This exhibition, on the one hand, looks into the way in which Taiwanese art pursues its subjectivity; on the other hand, it looks forward to a deeper connection with global art trends in the future.

     This exhibition is scheduled to be on view for two years and proceed in three sequential sessions. We anticipate that the NTMoFA’s fascinating collection is able to provide the public with more opportunities for appreciation and to enhance the visitors’ understanding of the development of Taiwanese art.