Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

“Searching for Paintings” starts off by doing reports on literature and looks back at left-wing ideas and actions in Taiwan from the 1960s to the 1980s. In terms of art, paintings are an asset that artists give to the land and also clues to understand the artists. Thus, the significance, content and spirit of paintings can calmly and powerfully depict the value of art in today’s diverse art world. The topics discussed at the seminars of the exhibitions include the artist’s dialogue with literature, the changes in the post-realism culture in Taiwan after WWII and using art and literature to conduct social practices, making the seminars look as if their goal was to study social thought and turning these seminars into WU Yao-Zhong’s “life as art” solo exhibition. The “Searching for Paintings” team has conducted an enlightening exploration of modernism in Taiwan art from a different perspective, allowing the relationship between art and society to become more multi-dimensional.   Committee member:CHIANG Yao-Hsien

Painter WU Yao-Zhong who learned from realism master LI Mei-Shu, is one of the iconic figures for the post-war Taiwanese realism painting. For some reasons, Wu’s works were scattered and hidden in so many places. In order to trace the transformation of the realism art in Taiwan and understand the development of the left-wing spirit, the searching group started the project of Searching for WU Yao-Zhong’s Paintings: Stories of a Realist Artist and discovered more than 140 works from Wu until now. This is much more than an exhibition; this is a cultural movement that combines investigation, publication, exhibition and seminars..

Artwork Introduction

Searching for WU Yao-Zhong’s Paintings is an artistic and cultural project undertaken through the hunt for scattered paintings by WU Yao-Zhong (1938-1987). The most promising realist painter of his generation, Wu was perhaps also the painter with the most circulated works in Taiwanese art history. His paintings graced the book covers of numerous prominent writers during the Debate over Taiwan Native Literature in the late 1970s. Since he held a socialist view of art, he did not consider his paintings to be commodities. As a result, when he was alive, his paintings were never circulated in the art market. Instead, his early works were either given to family and friends as gifts, or kept at home. Those he later painted for the covers of books and magazines were either collected by the publisher or given to editors and authors as gifts, thus resulting in his works being scattered in various locations.

In order to write a life story for this painter, to trace the transition in the postwar Taiwanese realist culture and art, to understand the development of Taiwan’s leftist sprit, the project was launched to look into and search for Wu’s paintings. The final product is not only an art exhibition, but a set of cultural practices composed of research, publication, exhibition and forums.

The painter who has the largest amount of works in circulation in Taiwanese Art History

WU Yao-Zhong was the most promising painter of his time. When he was studying in National Taiwan Normal University, he already won numerous major awards. Wu might be the painter who has the largest amount of works in circulation as well. When the debate of the Taiwanese literature developed in the 1970’s, Wu’s paintings were selected as the covers for several important writers. And in the beginning of the 1980’s, followed by the gradual release for the right of free speech, Wu started to paint for some publications about political critics and opposition groups. In the decade from 1975 to 1984, Wu’s painting graced the covers of books and widely spread in the hands of the new generation.

With his socialist point of view, Wu did not take his works as commodity. Wu’s painting did not appear in the art market when he was still alive. He gave away part of his early pieces, and kept the other part at home. For his later works, the paintings designed for the book covers, were mostly collected by the owners of the publishers, the editors or the writers.

Searching for WU Yao-Zhong’s Paintings: Searching for the art legacy that the painter has left behind for Taiwan

The searching group started the journey since 2009 and picked 80 out of the 130 paintings which had been found until 2012 to exhibit in four very different spaces from Taipei, Yi-Lan, Hsin-Chu to Kaohsiung. The paintings made connections with a variety of participants from different regions with diverse backgrounds.

This is a very special exhibition, for all the pieces were works for more than 30 to 50 years and made their debut until now. Debut it is, but for many pieces, they were already a part of our visual memories through the cover of books. This project is not only about the past, but it also extends into the future by having a series of seminars that invites cultural activists from different generations to talk about their social realization, their relationship with WU Yao-Zhong and also the interaction and transformation of the art and society in the post-war Taiwan.

About the Artist

The Wistaria Cultural Association was established in 2000. It organizes a lecture series, performances, salons, and serves to promote the arts and humanities as well as traditional tea culture. The Center for Asia-Pacific/Cultural Studies aims to promote the integration of Asia in terms of knowledge production across the strait, in the Sinophone world, within Asia, and across the globe.

Production Team

1.Wistaria Cultural Association

Curator: LIN Hui-Feng

Project Manager: LIU Chia-Chi

Project Executive Team: LIN Hsiu-Yu and CHO Yun-Tzu

Exhibition Site Designer: CHEN Shu-Chiang

2.Center for Asia-Pacific/Cultural Studies, NCTU

Curators: LIN Liyun (Research Fellow, Center for Asia-Pacific /Cultural Studies, NCTU)

SU Shu-Fen (Executive Supervisor, Center for Asia-Pacific/Cultural Studies, NCTU)

CHEN Jui-Hua (Assistant Professor, Institute of Sociology, NTHU)

Exhibition Site Designer: mirrwork