Xiu fu yi ge shi dai: Wen hua bu yi shu pin ji xiang guan dang an qiang jiu xiu fu ji cang ji hua = The restoration of our time : the documentary of rescue and restoration of artworks project

Abstract

"One of the Ministry of Culture's forward-looking infrastructure policies is to 'reconstruct the history of Taiwanese art.' To conserve Taiwanese cultural assets and historical value, as well as connect and represent the historical memories of our land and our people, the Ministry of Culture assigned the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts to carry out the Ministry of Culture Artworks and Related Archives' Salvage, Restoration, and Collection Project. This project was also the first of which government units assisted in restoring private art collections. Conserving and preserving cultural assets have become public knowledge amongst Taiwanese people. However, artworks by many artists of the preceding generation were kept under collections by the artists' family members, therefore being quite challenging for the conservation environment and equipment to reach art museum conditions and professional preservation methods. This may easily cause damage and deterioration to the artworks, yet these collectors had no access to restoring the artworks. The focus of the project was thus established under such circumstances. In protecting these cultural assets, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts worked in collaboration with academics, professionals, and restoration teams, each doing their parts in the conservation and continuance of these important artworks. [...] Within this project, a total of 77 pieces were restored, all of which were created by artists of the preceding generations, who actively participated in 'Taiten', 'Futen', painting societies, and other art-related activities during that period. The selected 7 artists were respectively Lee Mei-Shu, Chen Chih-Chi, Yang San-Lang, Kuo Po-Chuan, Liu Chi-Shiang, Weng Kun-De, and Zhuang Shr-He. The media used on these artworks ranged from oil colors, watercolors, and sketches on canvas or paper. Each of the artists had their strong personal style, and through the restorations, the features of their artworks can be exhibited once more. Many of the artists' creative information and stories behind the paintings were also unearthed throughout the restoration process, which can be used as data and topic references for research on art history in the future."-- Director's preface (page 5).