TAIWAN SICHUAN COMPARATIVE SHOW To September 7 2008 Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
Strengthening cross-strait links between Taiwan and China following the recent opening of commercial flights between the two is reflected in a new exhibition in Taipei. Featuring works by 12 artists from Sichuan and 15 artists from Taiwan, this exhibition initiates a comparative study between contemporary painting in Sichuan and Taiwan and their different historical, social and political contexts.
According to curator Howard Chen, “the relations between the two are on the one hand very close due to a common language and culture; but on the other hand far apart from each other due to historical differences”.
Painting remains dominant in China
One of the biggest differences between the two regions’ contemporary paintings is that Sichuan artists focus more on figure painting and their works are influenced by the political and nationalistic collective memory of the time.
Taiwan prefers contemporary media
However the development of contemporary art in Taiwan took a different course. The year of 1987 was a turning point. After the lifting of martial law, alternative spaces presented works that claimed to be avant-garde offering multiple perspectives representing the new open and liberal environment.
Installation art flourished from the 90’s with emerging artists searching for their own individual expressive symbols and specific subjects. Taiwan’s artists preferred to experiment with conceptual art, multimedia art, techno art, and new media art. There was much less interest in the medium of painting compared with mainland China.
Sichuan and figure painting
However, figure painting remained popular in contemporary China and used babies anad children as common subjects representing the growth of the new China. Politics and nationalism served as nourishing influences rather than harmful ones.
The Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts
Taipei National University of The Arts
Website: http://kdmofa.tnua.edu.tw/
Zhou Chunya
Click on artists above for more information about shows, dealers and exhibitions courtesy of Artfacts.
Artists: Honkuo YANG, Haoyuan LUI, Yuan LIAO, Ling CHANG, Chisui WANG, Chingchuan LEE( b.1973), Yi HUNG, Chunming HOU, Weikuo KUO, Ju LIN, Hsienming LU, Mingtse LEE, Futung WANG, J.C. KUO(b.1949), Michell HWANG(b.1948), Hongtao TU, Xiaotao ZHANG(b.1970), Biao ZHONG, Nengzhi ZHAO, Zhengjie FENG(b.1968), Ji LI, Wei GUO, Yongqing YE, Liya FU, Hung LIU(b.1948), Xuhui MAO, Chunya ZHOU
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