In the two decades since the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMOFA) first opened its doors, the Museum has established a broad perspective based on the foundation of Taiwan’s art history that informs the Museum’s task of displaying, archiving, researching and promoting our exhibits. Each work of art in our collection of over 13 thousand individually reflects both the styles and the prevailing societal culture of their eras. Together, they reconstruct a visual representation of Taiwan’s artistic development in the 20th Century. Our collection is truly one of Taiwan’s most important artistic treasuries.

With a collection as rich as this, but bound by the limits of time and space, many of these singular works of Taiwan’s art history are only able to make brief appearances to the throngs who come specifically to see them. In view of this, during the Nation’s centenary celebrations this year, NTMOFA has put together a special exhibition, entitled “Unique Vision: Highlights from the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Collection,” that features 31 classic works of art from the Museum’s collection that best represent and are most indicative of the past century of developments in Taiwanese art history. We hope that through this exhibition, the public will gain a depth of understanding for and be moved by the allure of Taiwanese art.

The caliber and comprehensiveness of a fine arts museum’s collection is often an indicator of the style, category and nature of the institution. World-renown museums make a name for themselves based on their collection of works of art, and their permanent exhibitions are displays of the museum’s solid foundation. Hence, as we at NTMOFA inspect and research our archive of artworks to curate this “Unique Vision: Highlights from the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Collection” exhibition, every effort was made to represent the achievements of Taiwanese artists over the past century. Our hopes are that, through these 31 works, the viewing public will become aware of the life experiences of each artist, the uniqueness of their work, and their unshakeable status in as well as their contribution to the culture of arts in Taiwan. These works will be presented as a permanent exhibit so that those who have an appreciation for and interest in Taiwanese art will have ample opportunity to approach these works of art that represent highlights in Taiwan’s century of art history. We at NTMOFA will continue in this same spirit as we update the “Unique Vision” permanent exhibition in the future, and as we establish this as one of the Museum’s core tasks.