A billboard put up by the Li Mei-shu Art Gallery featuring a female nude painting by late artist Lee Shih-chiao (李石樵) was partially censored yesterday following complaints from the parents of students at a nearby elementary school.
The gallery put a QR code on the blacked-out portion alongside a printed copy of a newspaper cutting of a story about how the painting was ordered to be pulled from the exhibit in 1936, to symbolize its stance of making a silent protest.
The gallery, in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽), put up the billboard featuring Lee’s 1936 painting Reclining Nude (橫臥裸婦) in a parking lot last week to advertise its latest exhibition, which commemorates the 90th anniversary of the Tai-Yang Art Association.
Photo: Tung Kuan-yi, Taipei Times
However, complaints followed, with many coming from parents of students at the neighboring Anxi Elementary School.
The QR code links to a statement the gallery put up on Tuesday which said that the exhibit observes the founding principles of the Tai-Yang Art Association, adding that it hoped to provide artists with a platform to present their work and popularize art appreciation.
Lee was part of the group of seven artists who founded the association in 1934, with the goal of developing modern art education in Taiwan.
Photo courtesy of Lee Ching-wen
The statement said that the greatest principle underpinning the association, which also ran private art exhibitions from 1938 to 1944, and resumed in 1948, encouraged artists to express sentiments of loving and cherishing the place where the artist and the audience were raised, with art as the medium.
Lee’s Reclining Nude was also banned from being displayed at the association’s second fine arts exhibition in 1936, the year it was painted, by the Japanese colonial authorities after it was deemed “damaging to public morals.”
The name of the latest exhibition is “Chun se wu bian” (春色無邊), which can be translated as “The boundless colors of spring.”
In Chinese, the word chun se can also have a sexual connotation.
The museum said it chose the name well in advance, and only confirmed it would receive the painting on loan a month before the exhibition opened.
The statement said it arrived at the exhibit’s naming scheme based on two concepts: the first because the Tai-Yang Exhibit was always held in spring, and Li was also born in spring, so the exhibit wished to gather an array of pieces that would highlight Taiwan’s spring; the latter, wubian, meaning boundless, symbolizes artists’ eternal endeavor to achieve the three transcendentals — truth, goodness and beauty.
There is nothing sexual about the exhibition, the statement added.
Gallery foundation chief executive officer Lee Ching-wen (李景文) said the gallery did not wish to cause trouble and acquiesced to the demands.
However, he added that that he hoped those who complained would visit the exhibition to see for themselves what it is about.
While Anxi Elementary School called for the painting to be removed or censored, Chengfu Elementary School, another local elementary school, had a drastically different reaction.
The school’s principal, Hsieh Chi-huang (謝基煌), an art major, said yesterday the incident was an excellent opportunity to teach students how to approach nudity and art.
Senior school authorities explained to students during morning assembly why nudity was prevalent in Western paintings and sculptures, and how students should approach and appreciate the concept.
Hsieh said students were receptive after the explanation, and parents were also understanding.
Asked about the controversy, Beatrice Hsieh (謝佩霓), a curator and art critic, on Monday said that people should be able to distinguish between works of art and pornography, based on the professionalism of the artist.
Hsieh said she was nevertheless shocked that an 88-year-old painting, which “has already entered the public domain and become a part of Taiwanese history,” had caused such a stir.
“If even a piece by an iconic artist like this is questioned, what room does that leave for creativity?” she asked.
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