An iconic sculpture that Huang Tu-shui (黃土水) had made during Japanese rule was inducted into the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung on Saturday.
The statue, lost for more than half a century before its rediscovery last year, is to become the centerpiece of the museum, Minister of Culture Lee Yung-te (李永得) said at an induction ceremony.
Motivated by the statue’s discovery, the museum has begun research into Huang and his works, and plans exhibitions focused on his art, Museum Director Liao Jen-i (廖仁義) said.
Photo: CNA
The museum is to research and document the works of other seminal local artists whose talents represent a cross-section of Taiwanese art, he added.
Huang’s Water of Immortality is to be placed just inside the museum’s entrance, while his The Water Buffalo is displayed at the other end of the exhibition hall, Liao said.
The arrangement is intended to show the museum’s admiration for Huang’s works and to demonstrate its resolve to restore and curate iconic pieces from throughout Taiwanese history, he said.
At the ceremony, Lee thanked the family of Taichung physician Chang Hung-piao (張鴻標) for helping preserve an important piece of Taiwan’s history.
Chang helped restore and move the sculpture after it was found abandoned inside Taichung Railway Station, where it had sat since 1958.
Created in 1919, Water of Immortality (formerly known as Sweet Dew) was Huang’s second work to be displayed at the third Imperial Art Exhibition, the most prestigious art event in Japan at the time.
Dubbed Taiwan’s Venus de Milo, the 1.75 meter tall marble sculpture portrays a young woman with a calm, confident appearance, standing upright with her head tilted slightly backward and both hands touching either side of a large shell behind her.
It was sent back to Taiwan after Huang’s death from peritonitis at the age of 35, and later collected by the Taiwan Education Association in 1931 during Japanese rule.
At the end of imperial rule in 1945, the Taiwan Representative Council was founded at the same site as the Taiwan Education Association and assumed its collections.
Water of Immortality followed the council to Taichung in 1958, but was later abandoned at the city’s railway station for unknown reasons, Lee said.
The statue’s re-emergence was celebrated by Taiwan’s art community last year, and following restoration, it was toured in exhibitions held by the Museum of National Taipei University of Education and the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts.
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