A Study of the Traveling Exhibition of Independent Art Association to Taiwan in the 1930s

• In Event: Artists on the Threshold: the Signification of Artists’ Motion in Modern East Asia

Abstract

The first exhibition of the Independent Art Association (dokuritsubijutsukyōkai), was held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, and then at Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, and Taipei city in 1931. The third exhibition was held at Taipei again in 1933. Association members also came to Taiwan to give lectures and travel around. In addition, the Five Fruits Association (Gokakai) was organized by several Japanese artists at Dalian in 1932, and the China Independent Art Association by Chinese artists in 1935—both were related to the movement of the Independent Art Association and focused on surrealism.
However, compared to the research done on this issue regarding Japan and China, the acknowledgement of the movement in Taiwan and the meaning of it are woefully underexplored. This paper analyzes the traveling exhibition of the Independent Art Association in Taiwan in 1930s, and expounds on the meaning of this movement, which should be implied as a step of the acceptance of surrealism in East Asia during 1930s. This paper also will explore the uniqueness of Taiwan’s art history and the possibility of establishing an East Asian art history.

Author

• Chia-chiu Tsai, National Taiwan Normal University