The Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (KdMoFA) will showcase one of the best post-war Taiwan artists – Shaih Lifa – in a solo exhibition starting this month.
"Old Plates, New Prints – A Solo Exhibition by Shaih Lifa" will run from May 17 till July 14, mostly displaying the 75-year-old artist's prints from his school days in Paris in 1964 to his apprenticeship in Westbeth Artists' Housing in 1974.
The versatile artist graduated from the Department of Arts, Provincial Normal College (now National Taiwan Normal University) before traveling to Paris in 1964 to study sculpture. He went to New York in 1968 to study the theories and history of art.
He is an active member of the Fifth Month Art Group. He also played a crucial role in the birth of such arts and cultural organization as Paris Foundation of Art, Taiwanese Literature Association and Taiwan Cultural Exchange Center.
He has published several books on art, the best known being "History of Taiwanese Art Movement during Japanese Occupation." He takes a firm stand on Taiwanese cultural identity when writing the art history of Taiwan.
Shaih is a versatile and impressively productive artist who is steeped in various fields of art such as printmaking, oil painting, sculpture and installations.
His works have been selected by several important international exhibitions, such as the International Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo.
His prints are collected by the Prints and Photo Department of the National Library of France, MoMA, and National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.