Wildness and Purity (狂放與純粹) is a retrospective exhibit of China-born Taiwanese ink painter Chen Qing’s (陳勤) work. Early in life, Chen established a foundation in drawing and oil painting, which he would later use to create pen and ink paintings that see him blending the ideas of Western abstraction with the frenetic brushstrokes of Chinese cursive script.
■ 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
■ Until May 23
Perfection Serenity Substance Unrestraint is a group exhibit by three of Taiwan’s top sculptors, Chen Hsia-yu (陳夏雨), Hsiung Ping-ming (熊秉明) and Hsia Yan (夏陽). Hsia Yan’s recent metal sculptures of chaotic and bold lines display the dynamic movement of Futurism with an Eastern-infused narrative of nonchalant cuts and curves that works to soften the hardness of metal and reveal a transcendent grace. Using bronze as his primary medium, Hsiung’s simple geometrical patterns attempt to capture a fleeting sense of time and space, while retaining elements of the eternal. This exhibit includes his well-known Buffalo Series. Chen’s style merges elements of Egyptian, Greek and Buddhist art. Chosen on three occasions to participate in the Japanese Imperial Salon, his work in this exhibit illustrates a fascination with the female form.
■ Eslite Gallery (誠品畫廊), 5F, 11 Songgao Rd, Taipei City (台北市松高路11號5F). Open Tuesdays
to Sundays from 11am to 7pm.
Tel: (02) 8789-3388 X1588
■ Until May 30
The Wild Wonders of Hung Tung (洪通的異想幻境) is a retrospective exhibit of Taiwanese artist Hung Tung’s (洪通) paintings. Hung, a self-taught painter who began painting at the age of 50, was celebrated for his rich imagination and eccentric behavior. Although many critics dubbed his work childlike, Hung’s paintings offer a vivid and intricate tapestry of colorful patterns full of figures and animals that were nurtured on Taiwanese folk traditions, particularly the popular religious traditions of temples.
■ Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taoyuan County Government (桃園縣政府文化局), 21 Sianfu Rd, Taoyuan County (桃園市縣府路21號)
■ Until May 25
Landscape painter Jan Chin-shui (詹金水) returns to his abstract roots with Looking at the Landscape (觀山水). Though having experimented stylistically, Jan produces vivid and appealing oil paintings in the spirit of Chinese landscapes. Deeply influenced by Tibet’s landscapes, his paintings present shifting light, shadow, and mist in a naturalistic manner. According to the exhibition blurb, “Jan has developed a wonderful style that combines the textures and the rich, saturated colors of Western oils with the cultural and humanistic spirit of the East.”
■ 99 Degrees Art Center (99 藝術中心), 5F, 259, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段259號5F). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm.
Tel: (02) 2700-3099
■ Until May 23
Vision2: The Future that Encompasses the Past (重暗) is a group exhibit and art exchange that features works by Taiwanese and Chinese painters, sculptors and installation artists in a dialogue that seeks to reveal the similarities and differences in the preoccupations of emerging and established artists on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
■ 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 May 30
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
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless