Following on last year's exhibit of classical paintings from the Louvre at Taipei's National Palace Museum, people in Taiwan now have another chance to see great Western art without having to travel far. The National Museum of History is sponsoring a show, called "The Golden Age of Impressionism." It is composed of 60 works by Impressionist masters from the Mus'eed'Orsay in France. On the opening day 5000 people visited the show, making it a true "banquet of beauty."

The exhibit "The Golden Age of Impressionism," sponsored by the China Times and the National Museum of History (NMH), opened at the NMH on January 15. This exhibit was managed, and all paintings selected, by the Taiwan side. After Taipei, the show will move to the Kaohsiung Municipal Museum of Fine Arts in May. The entire tour will last half a year, and is being coordinated with 10 lectures, parent-child art programs, music appreciation, and other activities. This marks another achievement by NMH director Huang Kuang-nan in sowing the seeds of art appreciation in Taiwan.

This exhibit includes representative works of an assortment of Impressionists from several periods, from the Mus'eed'Orsay's holdings. One is Apples and Oranges by C'ezanne, recognized as the father of modern painting. Cezanne is considered the most accomplished and ambitious still- life painter of his era, and he had great impact on the development of Fauvism and Cubism. There is also Woman With Fans, by Manet, who was so adept at capturing the lives of Parisians. It shows a woman reclining languorously in front of a wall decorated with fans with an Oriental flavor; Europe was at that time being swept by Chinoiserie, so this picture tells many stories without words.

There are also a number of works by Renoir and Monet, who are very popular among Taiwanese. In particular, later works by these two masters-with especially rich colors and brilliantly luminescent-bring many exhibition visitors to a standstill. One is an 1892 Renoir, Young Girls at the Piano, another a 1900 Monet called The Water Lily Pond: Harmonious Pink. Art historian Chiang Hsun says of this canvas that while Monet was painting his beloved lotus pond, Paris was bustling outside, but he continued to work as if he didn't hear a thing. A friend who came to visit Monet told him, "You must keep painting and never stop. These may be the only memories mankind has left!"

The Impressionist school arose in mid- 19th-century Paris, especially after the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), amid that city's rising urban culture. Representative artists include Monet, Renoir, D'egas, Manet, Pissaro, Morisot, Van Gogh, C'ezanne, and Toulouse-Lautrec. They painted mainly scenes from life or landscapes. Their works-usually painted outdoors-emphasize light, and are filled with vitality. The Impressionists have a key place in art history; they could be said to be the fountainhead of all modern art schools, with their influences extending to Fauvism, Symbolism, and Cubism. One fine arts teacher visiting the exhibition noted that Western art education in Taiwan has always strongly emphasized the Impressionist period, and Impressionist works are often the most accessible first introduction to Western art.

There are nearly 3000 works in the Mus'eed'Orsay collection; the 60 in the Taiwan exhibition revolve around the theme of "The City and Civilization." They show 19th-century Paris in the era of industrialization, with the rise of the middle class, as leisure and daily life grew increasingly pluralized. More importantly, these paintings show a side of modern life after industrialism, with the remote interpersonal relations of modern urban life, the loneliness and desolation on the margins of the city, and rural landscapes whose scenery has been marred by industrial development. In fact, in recent years Taiwanese have come to know such images first-hand, so Huang Kuang- nan and Chiang Hsun paid special attention to this aspect when selecting pieces for the exhibition and chose urban civilization as the theme, so that visitors would have a sense of recognition.

Impressionism also had a strong impact on painting in Taiwan and China. In the Japanese occupation era, Taiwan painters, feeling trapped by the imposition of an alien culture, could satisfy their aspirations for beauty through this free and flowing style. Most key figures in occupation-era art came into contact with Impressionism through Japan; only a few studied in France. One of those who did, 95-year-old Yen Shui-lung, stood in tears as he again looked upon Renoir's Young Girls at the Piano.

This show took two years to prepare, including deciding on the counterpart gallery, negotiating, reaching agreement, financing, determining venues and dates, transporting the works, insuring them (to the tune of NT$10 billion), and preparing the temperature- and humidity-controlled and well- guarded hall. Only with all that effort could this important show be made available to local citizens.

Local publishers are not letting the opportunity slip by. A number of books have been released about the Mus'eed'Orsay and Impressionism. Perhaps the best of these is the Chinese-language edition of Paintings in the Mus'eed'Orsay, under rights granted by the museum. This work, edited by New York art critic Robert Rosenblum, includes explanations and large full-color pictures. Also, the NMH published its own volume on the Mus'eed'Orsay, mainly devoted to the works being shown in Taiwan.

Mus'eed'Orsay curator Henri Loyrette and Alain Seban, representing the French Ministry of Culture, came to Taiwan with the paintings. Besides meeting with Minister of Education Wu Ching to exchange ideas, they took advantage of the occasion to announce their intention to strengthen cultural exchanges of this sort in the future.

The person most exhausted-and delighted-by the holding of this exhibition is probably Huang Kuang-nan. He says proudly that the recent series of international exhibitions indicates that Taiwan has the ability to step onto the international cultural stage. They also raise the degree of exposure of international culture in Taiwan, and, most importantly, bring renowned works of art within reach of ordinary people in their daily lives.

Finally, Huang specially reminds everyone that the best display is still on the second floor of the NMH-modern Chinese art of the same period as the Impressionists. When Western art followed gunboats into China, it was a profound shock to traditional Chinese painting. There was revolutionary change. To see what it was all about, check out the "Late-Qing Early-Republican Ink Painting" collection, including works by Ren Bonian, Ju Lian, Wu Changshuo, Wang Zhen, Gao Jianfu, Chi Baishi, and others. All are exquisite works, so be sure not to miss it!

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The exhibition of works from the Mus'eedd'Orsay has created great excitement. But some wonder if Taiwan people love art, or just excitement and bustle. Art historian Chiang Hsun says it doesn't matter: If the seeds of culture are spread widely, the harvest can be unexpectedly wondrous. (photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang)