Reconstructing Taiwan’s art history
In 2021, after a year of conservation and restoration work, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMOFA), which has been entrusted with Hsu’s collection, held Taiwanese Art Treasures Preserved Overseas: The Homecoming Exhibition of the Sun Ten Collection. Hsiao Chong-ray, who curated this exhibition, says that the collection is fabulously rich, encompassing 195 artists, from the Japanese painter Kinichiro Ishikawa (1871-1945) to young professionals born in the 1980s. The four sections of the exhibition cover different periods, according to the artists’ years of birth. Not only does the exhibition introduce Taiwan’s art history through paintings, but it also helps contextualize the ways in which people on this island have lived.
In order to reflect the scope of Hsu’s collection, Hsiao wanted every artist to be represented by at least one work. With this principle in mind, he based his selection criteria on the artistic merits and uniqueness of each artwork. For example, the first section of the exhibition includes Liao Chi-chun’s A Scene in the Park, an exuberant but far from gaudy oil painting that captures the vitality of spring with a bold palette.
Another highlight is the works of Li Mei-shu (1902-1983), who was known for being extremely unwilling to sell his own beloved paintings. Li was moved by Hsu’s repeated visits and gifts of Chinese medicine for his stomach condition. Eventually Li not only agreed to part with three of his works, but also painted a double portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Hsu.
Hsu’s collection embraces different ethnicities and backgrounds, including artists from mainland China who relocated to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese Civil War, such as Chen Ting-shih, who went by the pseudonym Ears. Chen’s Day and Night, a print cut on board made from Taiwanese sugarcane bagasse, uses abstract motifs and the rough texture of the board to give a powerful visual effect. As Hsiao explains, “This work is both modern and traditional, both naturalistic and humanistic, expressing an immense energy that evokes cosmic collisions.”
The Sun Ten Collection straddles different eras, supplying rich information for a diachronic view of Taiwan’s art history. The fourth section of the exhibition features artists born after World War II. In keeping with the postwar pursuit of freedom and democracy, these artists adopted an infinite variety of subjects and art forms. For example, Mei Dean-e’s Why Did the Violin Kill the Musician?—created while the artist was studying in the United States—turns a violin into a crossbow. By portraying a musical instrument as a weapon, Mei’s mixed-media artwork probes into the artist’s own identity.
Cornered is an oil painting by John Enger Cheng, a second-generation Taiwanese-American born in the 1980s. Cheng reconsiders Taiwanese history by presenting a portrait of a young man whose face is half covered by a mask of the snout of a ferocious beast, and who is wearing a black shirt with a yellow tiger on it—the same as the tiger on the flag of the Republic of Formosa, which briefly existed in 1895 before the island was taken over by the Japanese. Hsiao believes that Taiwan is experiencing a cultural renaissance, and he wants Taiwanese art to be recognized as evidence of the country’s glorious history and civilization. The Sun Ten exhibition is intended to remind the Taiwanese people of their shared origin, so that through mutual sympathy and acceptance, the country may enter a new age where culture will regain its vital importance.
Hsu Hong-yen made an index card for each item in his collection and carefully preserved relevant news articles and letters. These historical documents are valuable for researchers.