Taipei Fine Arts Museum

The Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM; Шаблон:Zh) is a museum in Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. It is in the Taipei Expo Park. The museum first opened on August 8th, 1983, at the former site of the United States Taiwan Defense Command. It was the first museum in Taiwan built for contemporary art exhibitions. The architecture is a local adaption of the Japanese Metabolist Movement.

History

From 1984 until 1990, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum's most prestigious event was the "Trends of Modern Art in the R.O.C.". This was a biennial exhibition which promoted Chinese modernity in art and mostly invited artists with a R.O.C. passport or equivalent ancestry. This national, competition style, exhibition was replaced in 1992 by the Taipei Biennial and the Taipei Prize. The Taipei Biennial had curators or a critics invite an artist to exhibit, while the Taipei Prize continued to serve as a competition style event aimed at discovering young or unknown artists.

Since its opening, TFAM's mission has been to promote both Chinese modern art and international exchange. Since its early years it has hosted numerous international exhibitions, often sponsored by foreign cultural institutions such as the British Institute or the Goethe Institute. In 1989 it sent its first exhibition abroad. It was held in Japan and was entitled, "Message from Taipei". One of the most prominent of these national exhibitions abroad was held in 1996 / 1997 in Aachen at the Museum Ludwig and in Berlin at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt as "Taiwan: Kunst Heute".

Since the mid-1990s, the TFAM's mission changed to promoting a Taiwanese identity in contemporary art, most visibly by organizing a national Taiwanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennial, and by dedicating the Taipei Biennial to the question of Taiwanese identity. In 1996 the largest ever Taipei Biennial was held under the title "The Quest for Identity", involving 110 artists and all floors of the building.

Since 1995 the TFAM organizes the Taiwan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which from 1995 until 2000 was recognized as a national pavilion. Starting in 1997 China exerted diplomatic pressure against the use of the name "Republic of China", and by 2001 the TFAM's Taiwan Pavilion in Venice was relegated to the list of institutional participations, later on to the category of collateral events. Since the year 2000 the Taichung National Museum of Arts organizes a participation at Venice's architecture biennial. While the TFAM had been happy to represent "Taiwan", the Taichung National Museum of Art insisted on the use of the name "R.O.C.", which became the diplomatic deathknell to a national pavilion. The loss of an official national representation has inspired other museums in Taiwan to organize exhibitions at the Venice Biennale as well, such as the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in 2007, and MoCA Taipei in 2009.

Since 1998 the Taipei Biennial has become an international event, curated by an international star curator. The first experiment in Asian internationalization was led by Fumio Nanjo under the title Site of Desire in 1998. Since 2000 the international curator is invited to choose a local co- curator, who then selects five to six local artists to participate at Taiwan's most prestigious art event. After 2000, funding and institutional backing for the Taipei Biennial have been dwindling, both compared to other Asian Biennials as well as privately backed exhibitions at the TFAM, regularly inciting criticism from the local art scene.

The TFAM has a rather interesting institutional history of interaction with the local art scene. In 1986 the first director, Su Rui-ping, had to step down after she had eliminated the installation of artist Zhang Jianfu from an "experimental" exhibition with her own feet, and in 1985 had a red metal sculpture called "Unlimited Minimalism" of Li Zai-qian repainted in silver. As a form of late justice, in 2006 a red sculpture called "Homerun" was permanently installed on the plaza facing the main entrance. In 1988 performance artist Lee Mingsheng was beaten up by museum guards when he brought a glass of his feces to a public discussion during the "World of Dada" exhibition, which also featured Duchamp´s famous urinal. In 1993 Lee became the first Taiwanese artist to be invited to the Venice Biennale. In 1995 newly appointed director Chang Chen-yu was forced to step down after months of protests of the art scene against his style of leadership and his use of museum funds. With the turn of the millennium and the growing professionalization of the art scene, this close-quarter relationship between the museum and the local art scene has considerably changed: at the 2004 Taipei Biennial, the statement of the local curator was eliminated from the official catalogue, without creating any major repercussions.

In 2001, the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei was established in the Taipei City government old building.

Taipei Fine Arts Museum curate important expositions for international artists.

Transportation

The museum is accessible within walking distance East from Yuanshan Station of the Taipei Metro.

See also

Шаблон:Commons category

  • List of museums in Taiwan
  • National Taiwan Museum
  • MoCA Taipei
  • Taipei Story House, adjacent to TFAM

References

Шаблон:Reflist

External links

Listed in the following categories:
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Iris Chan
29 October 2018
The whole area is very relaxing, the Museum is just newly renovated; suggest to get a bike, so comfortable to ride around! Go there at the weekend, this time we have the organic veggie market!
Arjan Timmermans
30 December 2014
Impressive, multi-story complex that houses modern art exhibits. A quick walk from Yuanshan MTR metro station.
T Pain
19 June 2013
Really really great permanent exhibits. No guided tours for English but if you know who Jeff Wall and Matthew Barney is you'll appreciate this place.
Simon Opsomer
6 May 2023
Very much worth a visit. And anyway, you can’t really go wrong if the entrance price is that cheap: just 30 Twd. If you don’t like big crowds, it’s better to avoid weekends.
Epicurean ????dventures
9 January 2019
Manage your expectations & u won't b disappointed.They r not in d same league as d finest in d????but judging by d many +ve reviews,there r ppl who have an appreciation 4it.Well...2each his own!
William Kan
13 June 2016
Always one of my favorite Taipei art museums, a bit far from the city though.
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Map
No. 181, Section 3, Zhongshan North Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 104 Get directions
Tue-Fri-Sun 9:30 AM–5:30 PM
Sat 9:30 AM–8:30 PM

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