After a decade of hunting, the National Museum of History managed to locate about 30 sculptures by Huang Tu-shui (黃土水) for his retrospective in 1989.
Huang was considered a late-blooming genius who quickly rose to become one of Taiwan’s most respected artists during the Japanese colonial era, and his first solo show in 1927 attracted more than 10,000 visitors.
Huang died young from overwork at the age of 35 and many of the 80 pieces displayed at his posthumous exhibition were lost after World War II.
After Huang’s “rediscovery” during the 1970s nativist movement, much effort was made to find Huang’s lost work — especially the 1921 marble piece Sweet Dew (甘露水), which was displayed at the Imperial Art Exhibition in Japan, the most prestigious show in that nation.
The 1.75m piece, which is considered Taiwan’s first nude sculpture, was finally located earlier this year by National Taipei University of Education professor Lin Mun-lee (林曼麗), who spent 20 years looking for it.
It was later donated by the Chang (張) family in Taichung to the Ministry of Culture last month — exactly 100 years after its completion — and it is to be unveiled to the public at the university’s museum in December.
This is an exciting and momentous occasion for anyone interested in Taiwanese art, history and culture.
As young local creatives continue to develop their own styles and forge a distinct, yet diverse Taiwanese identity, it is even more important to know about Huang and his call 99 years ago to create “the era of Formosan art.”
Through an article titled “Born in Taiwan,” Huang extolled the beauty of his homeland to Japanese readers, calling it the “treasure trove of the south” and a “paradise on Earth,” but more importantly he urged more young people to be inspired by Taiwan’s stunning scenery and create a style that is suited to its society, instead of simply following formulaic Chinese motifs.
“There is no doubt that this land will produce great artists,” he wrote.
Unfortunately, shortly after Huang’s death, the Japanese launched their kominka policy and clamped down on Taiwanese culture, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime did the same after it arrived in 1945, so Huang’s dream of celebrating being Taiwanese was lost to the political machine, along with his works of art.
Fortunately, the government and experts have been committed to rebuilding this lost chapter of Taiwanese art history. After the 1989 exhibition, more of his pieces were located, including a bust of Japanese politician Teijiro Yamamoto that arrived in Taiwan in December last year on a three-year loan to the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.
Fortunately, despite sitting in a box in a factory for decades, Sweet Dew remains intact except for a few blemishes. Many have called it Taiwan’s version of Sandro Boticelli’s The Birth of Venus, but Lin says that the piece should be seen as more than that.
Even though Huang employed Western techniques, the spirit and aesthetics of the piece are very Eastern, or Taiwanese, she said.
This highlights Huang’s vision to apply foreign techniques to themes surrounding his beloved homeland, which is also seen in his masterpiece Water Buffaloes (水牛群像).
This kind of fusion of styles is what many Taiwanese artists are striving for nowadays, which makes this discovery even more significant to the current cultural landscape.
Huang wanted to show the world the beauty of Taiwan, despite its status as a backwater colony, and today, people are trying to do the same to promote the nation amid unfavorable political circumstances. It took 100 years, but it seems that Huang’s vision of “Formosan art” is finally being realized.
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