The much anticipated Van Gogh: The Flaming Soul opened last week to long lines at the National Museum of History. Dubbed the most expensively insured exhibit ever in Taiwan (NT$30 billion) and the first exhibit of the Dutch artist’s work in the Mandarin-speaking world, it displays 77 sketches and 21 oil paintings that span the artist’s short 10-year career.
The more famous works include Self Portrait, Cypress Against a Starry Sky and Vase With Flower and Thistles, the latter painted a month before the post-impressionist master took his life.
■ National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei City (台北市南海路49號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2361-0270.
■ Until March 28
■ Admission is NT$300
Ju Ming (朱銘) captures the simplicity of life in his latest series of sculptures Living World Series, Stone (人間系列). In this series, Ju Ming dispenses with the vibrant colors that have become an important metaphor in his work for the multiplicity and joy of life in favor of black and white, and the brown of the exposed stone. The sculptures of parents and children, or people in contemplative poses take advantage of the natural curves of the stone and recall Ju Ming’s earlier works of calm meditation.
■ Kalos Gallery (真善美藝術畫廊), 41, Zhicheng Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市至誠路二段41號). Open Mondays to Saturdays from 10am to 6:30pm. Tel: (02) 2836-3452
■ Until Jan. 8
Fish, tigers and dogs are among the totemic animals sculptor Hong Yi (洪易) fashions from steel and paint in a multitude of vibrant colors in Deity. Tiger. Dog (神仙、老虎、狗). The solo exhibit also features some of Hong Yi’s acrylic paintings with the same animals roaming through unadorned mountain landscapes or framed inside geometrical shapes.
■ Impressions Art Gallery (印象畫廊), 40, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段40號). Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 10:30am to 7pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2705-9966
■ Until Jan. 4
Sky (我的天) is a solo exhibit of black-and-white photographs by Chen Ko-hua (陳克華). Chen’s work examines the relationship between the minuteness of the land and the vastness of the sky.
■ Butchart Contemporary Art Space, 155, Linong St Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市立農街二段155號). Open daily from 11am to 9pm. Tel: (02) 2820-9920
■ Until Jan. 12
Lin Po-yu (林博裕) creates semi-human, semi-beast ceramic sculptures in Ghosts Wandering at Night (百鬼夜行). The solo show is Lin’s attempt to sift through his complex feelings about the natural world. The creatures, bereft of clothing, are placed in a natural environment that resembles a surrealist Garden of Eden.
■ Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館), 200 Wenhua Rd, Yinge Township, Taipei County (台北縣鶯歌鎮文化路200號). Open daily from 9:30am to 5pm, closes at 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Tel: (02) 8677-2727
■ Until Feb. 7
Although never a clearly defined movement in the West, monochrome art received considerable attention in South Korea through a generation of contemporary artists, some of whom are shown in the touring exhibit The Color of Nature: Monochrome Art in Korea. The four artists — Lim Tschang Yeul, Lee Seung Jio, Lee Kang So and Park Seo Bo — infuse their paintings with Asian philosophical ideas for works that celebrate color, surface and texture.
■ Soka Art Center (索卡藝術中心), 2F, 57, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段57號2樓). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm. Tel: (02) 2570-0390
■ Until Jan. 31
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
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
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