Modern Artists Ⅳ　
In Search of Self : Taiwanese Painting during the Japanese Colonial Era

The fourth exhibition of “Modern Artists,” a series of shows presenting prominent figures and movements in Asian modern art, focuses on Taiwanese modern art during Japan’s colonial rule between 1895 and 1945. The original show, The “Regional Flavor” of Art in Taiwan During the Japanese Colonial Era, was held at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in 2004, the smaller version of which traveled to Fukuoka this time, adding some different works on view.

During Japan’s colonial rule, Taiten (Taiwan Arts Exhibition), where Taiwanese painters staged to develop their careers, as well as the other Imperial Art Shows, such as Teiten or Shin Bunten in Tokyo, were expected by then Japanese juries and art critics to display art that delivered the uniqueness as “Taiwanese.” Given such advice, Taiwanese painters shifted focus to their “homeland” as subject matter, which bore fruit in their paintings of oil, watercolors, and mineral pigments. Themed on “homeland,” discovered and reconsidered by artists through their own artistic explorations, the exhibition features 25 paintings, including those by Japanese who devoted themselves to nurturing artists in Taiwan, and those by Taiwanese who found their own way of expression following their experience as disciples of Japanese painters.