Looking into the past

TFAM’s thought-provoking Jewels of 25 Years Museum Collection illustrates how the public exhibition system under the Japanese colonial and martial law-era KMT governments strongly influenced what art was produced and consumed

By Noah Buchan / STAFF REPORTER

Interestingly, the post-martial law art is displayed before the martial law-era art, creating a jarring contrast between the vibrancy and originality of the former and the second-hand feel of the latter. While the Jewels of 25 Years Museum Collection does not explicitly suggest that authoritarian regimes — at least in Taiwan’s case — stifle innovation in art, it is difficult to imagine that it was not organized with this thought in mind. VIEW THIS PAGE