Department of Cultural Affairs

By Psyche Cho
Staff Reporter
Photo courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) is now exhibiting an impressive collection of works – oil paintings, drawings, prints, crafts, designs and advertising, as well as a public art mosaics chronology – of the late artist Yen Shui-long.?
Considered the ‘father of Taiwan crafts’, Yen was one of the most important local artists in the twentieth century, one who crossed the borders of art genres, says Weng Chih-tsung, acting director of TFAM.
“Yen was unique in Taiwan’s art history as he traveled deep into the mountains and onto the sea to record the culture of Taiwanese aborigines with his brush at a time when his peers were eagerly participating in exhibitions,” says Weng.
As a versatile artist with knowledge acquired during his career in advertising design and creation, Yen developed the belief that art should be fulfilled in daily life and hence dedicated himself to developing modern applied art.
The exhibition titled “The Public Spirit ‧ Beauty in the Making” that will run through February 26, 2012, is homage paid to an artist who contributed greatly to the land, notes Weng.
More than 200 items are categorized into the three themes Elegant, Simple, and Urban, each reflecting a major dimension of Yen’s creative career.
Highlights include two works owned by the Japanese company SMOCA where Yen once served as an advertising designer during the 1930s as well as four books published by the company which catalogued more than 100 illustrations by Yen.
Yen Shui-long (1903-1997), born in Tainan, was raised by his grandmother as his parents died when he was still young. He set out for Japan in 1920 to study painting, and not long after a brief return to Taiwan in 1929 he headed to French in August 1929 to study sketching and oil painting.