Preface
Ping Lin Director of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Internationally renowned conceptual and performance artist Tehching Hsieh was recommended for the position of representative participant at the Museum sponsored Taiwan Pavilion at the 57 th Venice International Art Biennial held in 2017. After the exhibition closed in December, Hsieh generously donated four works displayed at the Biennial to the Museum. In early 2018, the Museum started collecting performance artworks, and in January the collection review committee chose the three works Dysfunction No. 3 (1983) by Chen Chieh-Jen, Pencil Walker (1996 – 2015) by Shi Jin-Hua, and Painting Show (1991) by Leo Liu.
As of December of 2018, the Museum collection comprised 5,036 artworks, and purchase of works falling into the performance art category was about to formally begin. However, the Museum, accustomed to collecting physical objects, was challenged in a number of ways by the immaterial and site-specific quality of these works. Difficulties such as how to store content and how the work would be exhibited, interpreted, and viewed in the future all required urgent yet thorough consideration. Moreover, the collection of significant works spanning different eras, such as those in the development of modern and contemporary art, is a principal task of the Museum due to its identity as a public institution and its primary mission of supporting a collection to present the diverse features of the Taiwanese art world.
This catalogue is a record of acquisitions made through purchase or donation in 2018. Works include 4 ink paintings, 4 oil paintings, 14 mixed media works, 14 photographs, 2 watercolors, and 1 drawing, for a total of 39. Contemporary ink paintings collected this year are by the mid-career artists Lee Mao-Cheng, Emily S. C. Yang, Pan Hsin-Hua, and Hsu Yu-Jen. As an outstanding achievement in the respective artist's later period, each work expands his or her creative context and facilitates research. In 2012, Chou Yu-Cheng won the Taipei Art Awards with his A Working History—Lu Chieh-Te. The work represents an important stage in his development as an artist and enriches the Museum's collection of art projects. And through the Museum's exhibitions Looking Glass - Daniel Lee Retrospective, Microphone Test, and the Taipei Biennial Exhibition, the collection had the good fortune to acquire Daniel Lee's photographs Self Portrait, 108 Windows, and Judge and His Guard; Hsu Che-Yu's video installation Microphone Test, which won the Taishin Arts Award; and three of Hsu Chia-Wei's representative video works including White Building, and Spirit-Writing.
In addition to those purchased under the Museum’s collection guidelines, splendid artworks by Hsia Yan, Emily S. C. Yang, Chang Kuang-Ho, and Chen Shun-Chu were donated directly by the artists or their friends. Works include Ji Gong, An Elusive Curve, Essence Challenge - 1, and Assembly: Family Parade—Fukuoka Apartment Project I, II. Also, relatives of the early 20th century artist Ni Chiang-Huai generously donated important watercolors by Ishikawa Kinichiro. The collector Peng Pei-Chen followed up his 2017 donation of the large-scale installation Maze Theater with related architectural drawings, as well as the works Mystery of the Glass Beads Game and Personal Belongings, which offers a glimpse into the early works of Lee Tzu-Hsun, which gave rise to his career.
A significant event for 2018 was the addition of the performance artworks category to the Museum’s collection program, which allows not only the documentation of milestones in the development of 1980s and 90s Taiwanese performance art, but also the construction of a meaningful context for contemporary issues in the collection. Furthermore, the exploration of how video and other forms of documentation should be re-presented have created countless imaginative possibilities for the Museum in the new era.
Contents
010 - ISHIKAWA Kinichiro (pdf)
014 - SHI Jin-Hua (pdf)
018 - LEE Tzu-Hsun (pdf)
028 - Daniel LEE (pdf)
042 - LEE Mao-Cheng (pdf)
050 - CHOU Yu-Cheng (pdf)
056 - HSIA Yan (pdf)
062 - CHANG Kuang-Ho (pdf)
066 - HSU Yu-Jen (pdf)
074 - HSU Che-Yu (pdf)
074 - CHEN Chieh-Jen (pdf)
078 - HSU Chia-Wei (pdf)
088 - CHEN Shun-Chu (pdf)
092 - Emily S. C. YANG (pdf)
098 - Leo LIU (pdf)
102 - PAN Hsin-Huaen (pdf)