The so-called "first-generation artists" in Taiwan, who were mostly born in the first decade of the 20th century, share the influence of their Japanese training in oil painting and traces of European impressionism. Several have become quite famous, such as Liao Ji-chun (
Another well-known painter in this group is He Te-lai (何德來), born in 1904, who is currently being honored with a solo exhibition at the National Museum of History titled "Dialogue between the Alien Land and Homeland," which showcases 114 of his paintings.
He, who died in 1986, lived most of his life in Japan and has received little recognition, given the fact that he never sold his paintings. He left behind about 200 oil paintings, 140 of which were donated to the Taipei Fine Art Museum and the rest of which were held by relatives in his native Hsinchu. He was a key promoter of Western art in Hsinchu through his teaching of oil painting and the founding in 1932 of an art study group with painter Li Che-fan (
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HISTORY
He is best known for his landscape paintings of Hsinchu and Japan, which provide a visual record of spots before the advent of unsightly modern development. He is also unique for his bold adoption of Fauvism, using bright, contrasting colors.
Some of the highlights on exhibit are Summer Landscape which depicts rural Hsinchu in 1933 and Scene of Sea, a painting of a Japanese seashore. Two heart-wrenching pieces are Beancurd (1971), a picture of his wife's last meal at their home before she moved full-time to a hospital where she later died, and Night Scene of Ochanomizu (1971), a somber image of the scene outside the window of He's wife's hospital room.
Art Notes:
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HISTORY
What: The dialogue between alien land and homeland -- A commemorative exhibition of He Te-lai (異鄉與故鄉的對話:何德來紀念畫展)
Where: National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49, Nanhai Rd., Taipei (台北市南海路49號)
When: Until July 29
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would