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.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard