A sculpture by Huang Tu-shui (黃土水) that was lost for more than half a century is to go on display this year, the Museum of National Taipei University of Education and the Ministry of Culture said on Thursday.
Huang, who lived from 1895 to 1930, in 1921 carved Sweet Dew (甘露水) from marble. It was the second work by Huang to be displayed at the Imperial Art Exhibition in Japan, the most prestigious art event in the country, where it received critical acclaim.
The sculpture was rediscovered earlier this year, 50 years after it was lost, by a team led by Lin Mun-lee (林曼麗), a professor at the university.
Photo courtesy of Huang Pang-chuan and Chunni Lin via CNA
Lin searched for the work for 20 years.
It was donated to the ministry last month, exactly a century after it was completed, and is to be included in an exhibition at the museum in Daan District (大安) opening in December.
The 1.75m sculpture was put on display in 1931, a year after Huang died of peritonitis, by the Taiwan Education Association at what is now the National 228 Memorial Museum in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正).
However, the piece was abandoned at the Taichung Railway Station for unknown reasons after being transferred to the then-Provisional Taiwan Provincial Council in 1958.
The work was kept by a local family surnamed Chang (張) in their clinic until 1974, when it was moved to a factory in Taichung’s Wufeng District (霧峰), where it remained until being discovered by Lin.
Sweet Dew, which some call “Taiwan’s Venus,” is the earliest known nude statue in Taiwanese art history. It portrays a young woman with a calm yet confident countenance standing with her head tilted slightly backward and her hands holding a large shell behind her.
“It radiates an uplifting spirit, as well as being imbued with the artist’s imagination and anticipation for societal progress in Taiwan, marking a new chapter in Taiwanese art history,” the ministry wrote on Facebook.
“It is an explosive discovery,” Lin Chen-ching (林振莖), an assistant research fellow at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, was quoted by Chinese-language media as saying on Friday upon seeing photographs of the statue.
Although modeled after Sandro Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus, Sweet Dew reinterprets a goddess with the form of a Taiwanese female, ushering in a new art landscape for a new generation, as well as stunning the world with its beauty, he said.
Born at the beginning of Japan’s colonial rule over Taiwan, Huang was an iconic sculptor and the first Taiwanese artist to have works displayed at the Imperial Art Exhibition.
His representative works, which blended modern Western style with traditional Chinese elements, include The Chubby Playing Boy (山童吹笛), his first work to be shown at the Imperial Art Exhibition, and The Water Buffalo (水牛群像), which is on display at the Zhongshan Hall in Taipei.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS