Works of art can be timeless, but their inevitable physical deterioration requires the skilled hands of an expert conservator to restore them to their former glory.
Tsai Shun-jen (蔡舜任) is an oil painting restorer — something of a rarity in Taiwan — and also repairs religious artifacts.
He said he produced many oil paintings during his time as a fine arts student at Tunghai University.
Photo: Huang Hsin-po, Taipei Times
Rummaging through his portfolio one day, he found that some paintings developed mold, and this sparked his interest in art conservation.
Years later, Tsai was offered a position at the Ministry of Culture’s Bureau of Cultural Heritage, where he had the opportunity to work with highly skilled conservators.
This experience rekindled his aspiration to become a professional art restorer.
His determination took him to Italy, where he distributed pamphlets on the streets asking for an unpaid apprenticeship to learn the art of restoration.
Undeterred by initial rejections, he finally came across restoration artist Andrea Ciprian, who agreed to mentor him.
After years of training, Tsai has made a name for himself in art circles, having been tasked with helping conserve the Netherlands’ national collection of oil paintings, as well as artworks in the Dutch Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and artifacts damaged by floods during Hurricane Katrina in the US.
He was an apprentice to world-class restoration artist Stefano Scarpelli and became the first Taiwanese to obtain an art restoration degree for oil painting conservation at Palazzo Spinelli — an Italian institute renowned for cultural conservation and education.
Despite international recognition, Tsai said he never forgets what first motivated him to choose this career path — a desire to restore Taiwanese artifacts.
He returned to Taiwan and founded a studio in 2013 to rescue damaged religious artifacts, especially those depicting door gods, he said.
“I want to apply my skills and knowledge in Taiwan and hopefully preserve more native artworks for my homeland,” he said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai