Grounded in the People

This unit, "Grounded in the People," centers on works on the people of Taiwan and the fabric of their daily lives — depicting the architecture, artifacts, dress and adornment, folk beliefs, and everyday customs of both indigenous and Han communities. It unearths fine art and applied design works left by painters active in Taiwan during the modern period that take the people and lives of Taiwan as their subject. Among these, Shiotsuki Toho stands as the most representative figure, profoundly shaped by Taiwan's indigenous peoples, exemplifying the deep influence that the land and people of Taiwan exercised on artists engaged in both fine art and applied design. This spirit of Taiwanese identity is what the exhibition particularly seeks to foreground. Also featured are works by a number of artists who engaged with indigenous subject matter yet never found their place in the pages of Taiwanese art history — works that represent missing chapters in the project of reconstructing that history.

Kobayashi Eitaku's (1843–1890) woodblock print Peoples of Taiwan (from Eitaku Manga, 1890) offers a rare visual record of Taiwan's indigenous inhabitants made before Japanese colonial rule. Shiotsuki Toho, deeply influenced by the indigenous peoples he encountered, left behind a wealth of historical material in both his fine art and applied design work; even after returning to Japan, his works continued to center on indigenous Taiwanese imagery. The extensive indigenous portraits left by Yen Shui-long (1903–1997) and Lin Yu-shan's Boat Returning through Wind and Waves are both considered landmark works depicting Taiwan's indigenous peoples. Umehara Ryuzaburo 's (1888–1986) cover design for Wushe and his extensive use of Taiwanese folk woodblock prints as interleaves represent an applied design approach markedly different from his otherwise distinctive artistic style. Also on display are eight picture postcards signed "Yizhou," the woodblock prints of Taiwan Curiosities by Takemura Shuho (1882–1955), and works by Ishikawa Toraji (1875–1964), who used woodblock print to document indigenous and Han daily life and the landscapes and customs of Taiwan. All of these constitute invaluable historical material that Taiwanese art history has yet to fully incorporate.