An iconic nude sculpture created by Huang Tu-shui (黃土水, 1895-1930) during the era of Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan was inducted into the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Saturday.
The statue, lost for more than half a century before its rediscovery in 2021, will become the “centerpiece” of the museum, Minister of Culture Lee Yung-te (李永得) said at an induction ceremony.
Museum Director Liao Jen-i (廖仁義) said that driven by the statue’s induction, the museum had begun research into Huang and his works and planned exhibitions aimed at educating the public about Huang’s art.
He said that the museum would research and document the works of other seminal local artists whose talents represented the cross-section of Taiwanese art.
“Water of Immortality” will be displayed to the right of the museum’s entrance, while “The Water Buffalo,” another sculpture by Huang, is displayed at the other end of the exhibition hall, he said.
The arrangement was meant to show the museum’s admiration for Huang’s works and to demonstrate its resolve to endeavor to restore and curate iconic pieces in Taiwan’s art history, he said.
At the ceremony, Lee thanked the family of Taichung physician Chang Hung-piao (張鴻標) — who rescued the sculpture after it was abandoned at Taichung Railway Station in 1958 — for preserving a piece of history.
Created in 1919, “Water of Immortality” (formerly known as “Sweet Dew”) was Huang’s second work to be displayed at the third Imperial Art Exhibition in Japan, the most prestigious art event there at the time.
Dubbed Taiwan’s “Venus,” the 1.75-meter tall marble sculpture portrays a young woman with a calm yet confident countenance, standing upright with her head tilted slightly backward and both hands touching either side of a large shell behind her.
It was moved back to Taiwan after Huang died of peritonitis at the age of 35 and later collected by the Taiwan Education Association in 1931 during the period of Japanese rule.
After the end of Japan’s rule in 1945, the Taiwan Representative Council was founded at the same site as the Taiwan Education Association and took over its collections, including “Water of Immortality.”
The sculpture followed the council to Taichung in 1958 but was later abandoned at the city’s railway station for unknown reasons, according to Taiwan’s culture ministry.
The long-lost statue took Taiwan’s art circles by storm when it was rediscovered in October 2021, after National Culture and Arts Foundation Chairman Lin Mun-lee (林曼麗) tracked down Chang’s family.
Following restoration, the statue had been on an exhibition tour at the Museum of National Taipei University of Education and the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel