Different stages of graphic design in Taiwan are examined through one of its earliest post-war pioneers in Liao Wei-lin 88 Retrospective Exhibition (設計藝術家廖未林88回顧展) at the National Museum of History. Liao’s emphasis on unconventionality allowed him to create unique colorful imagery in art design, illustration, cover design and children’s illustrated books. His art even appeared, during the 1960s and 1970s, on Taiwan’s postage stamps. This exhibit offers a comprehensive overview of Liao’s work including book covers, illustrations, fabric patterns, old design drafts that have never been shown in public before and some new works completed in recent years.
Also at the National Museum of History, this is the last month to view Van Gogh: The Flaming Soul, an exhibition of original works by the tormented post-impressionist painter. It displays 77 sketches and 21 oil paintings that span the artist’s 10-year career.
■ 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. General admission is NT$30. Admission for the Van Gogh exhibit
PHOTO COURTESY OF NMH
is NT$300
■ Liao Wei-lin runs until April 11. Van Gogh ends March 28
The Color of Nature, Monochrome Art in Korea: Collections From the Busan Museum of Art offers viewers a glimpse of this unique art form from South Korea through 30 works painted during the 1970s and 1980s. The 28 artists featured in this exhibit create non-representational geometric compositions with variations in points, lines, patterns and layers of pure color to illustrate the order of thoughts and feelings.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF TFAM
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段181號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm, open until 8:30pm on Saturdays. Tel: (02) 2595-7656. General admission is NT$30
■ Until April 25
Island Gardening (海島園藝) is an exhibit of new works by contemporary Taiwanese artist Kuo Hung-kun (郭弘坤). Kuo’s silkscreen paintings in earthy tones depict various garden scenes that celebrate Taiwan’s rich natural environment.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF TFAM
■ Chi-Wen Gallery, 3F, 19, Ln 252, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段252巷19號3樓). For a viewing call
(02) 8771-3372
■ Until April 4
It Must Be Your Sexy Way is a group exhibition of contemporary Japanese and Taiwanese artists who examine the nature
of human sexuality — often explicitly so — through photographs, painting and sculpture.
■ Aki Gallery (也趣), 141 Minzu W Rd,
Taipei City (台北市民族西路141號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 6:30pm. Tel: (02) 2599-1171
■ Until April 4
Coinciding with the 82nd anniversary of the founding of Hangzhou National Academy of Fine Arts, one of China’s foremost institutes for the training of Western styles of art, Tina Keng Gallery presents paintings from some of the institution’s most famous graduates in the group exhibit Peerless Grace. Covering a broad range of styles, from expressionism to abstraction, the featured artists include Lin Fengmian (林風眠), Chu Teh-chun (朱德群) and Zao Wou-ki (趙無極).
■ Tina Keng Gallery (大未來耿畫廊), 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2659-0798
■ Until March 28
A group of contemporary Chinese artists and designers come together in 12% Design, 100% Creative Living. The exhibit brings together industrial and fashion designers whose works (products) are meant to be
re-created for mass consumption. Toys, fashion, sculpture, painting, furniture and installations are among the various genres on view.
■ Michael Ku Gallery (谷公館), 4F-2, 21, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段21號4樓之2). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 8pm. Tel: (02) 2577-5601
■ Until April 18
The year was 1991. A Toyota Land Cruiser set out on a 67km journey up the Junda Forest Road (郡大林道) toward an old loggers’ camp, at which point the hikers inside would get out and begin their ascent of Jade Mountain (玉山). Little did they know, they would be the last group of hikers to ever enjoy this shortcut into the mountains. An approaching typhoon soon wiped out the road behind them, trapping the vehicle on the mountain and forever changing the approach to Jade Mountain. THE CONTEMPORARY ROUTE Nowadays, the approach to Jade Mountain from the north side takes an
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and