鄉土的樣子

Introduction

The 1930s were a time of cultural awakening in Taiwan, driven in part by the activists of the Taiwan Cultural Association who fearlessly promoted native consciousness and education among the public, even while under the thumb of Japanese colonial rule. Although local artists did not join the campaign directly, as influential members of Taiwanese society, they explored similar ideas by looking to their surroundings. While the association pushed forward with its campaign of enlightenment, artists advanced the art world by incorporating modern concepts and practices introduced by Japan.

One hundred years have passed since the association was founded in 1921, but did artists ever cross its path in their pursuit of modernization? In light of the spirit of enlightenment advocated by Chiang Wei-Shui and his comrades, the National Museum of History considers how artists as intellectual elites responded to their contemporary social context, and explores the development of Taiwanese art over the past century through its painting collection.

Since the Qing Dynasty, Taiwanese art has been closely intertwined with the vicissitudes of history, politics, society and culture. It has been shaped by traditions old and new, by heterogeneous cultures coexisting and comingling to form an amalgamation that epitomizes Taiwan's pluralistic culture.

As the first public museum established by the Nationalist government in Taiwan following World War II, the NMH has long served as a window into the national culture and a platform for innovative art. Its collection of Taiwanese painting includes centuries of work, sketching an outline of Taiwan over different periods and diverse cultures that includes but is not limited to Chinese officials and literati who came to Taiwan during the Qing Dynasty, Japanese painters who were active in the Taiwanese art circle during the Japanese colonial period, artists from across China who arrived after World War II and of course local artists who had long called Taiwan their home. The apparent changes in artistic style, form and theme reflect the ways in which artists perceived Taiwan, denoting increasing concern with local life and diversity.

These selections from the NMH collection include a range of landscape, flower, plant and animal paintings created over the past century. Displayed together, they present a notable shift toward observation and representation of Taiwan itself, and a departure from the imitation of tradition common to Chinese ink painting. This development runs parallel to the cultural movement initiated by the Taiwan Cultural Association, which celebrates its centenary in 2021, reflecting not only the distinct cultural DNA of Taiwan, but also the uniqueness of Taiwanese art.