The Art Museum in Print: Artists Featured in Modern Art

TFAM has long supported knowledge production and art practice through the routine creation of academic publications, the holding of forums for exchange, the establishment of professional library facilities, and the collection of archives related to its institutional history. In 1984, TFAM established its longest-standing academic publication Modern Art, which at different points has been published monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, or at other intervals. This was followed by the Journal of Taipei Fine Arts Museum in 1998, and the launch of the online platform Modern Art+ in 2023. These three publications represent different eras and target different demographics, and respond to readers working in different fields. Together, they construct the context of TFAM’s academic publishing development.

In 2014, Modern Art started its “The Art Museum in Print” section, which invited eight artists to produce threedimensional works and gave readers the opportunity to assemble, admire, and collect artworks. In 2016, the “Featured Artist” section was added to accommodate in-depth interviews, and a total of 24 artists engaged in printmaking, oil painting, Chinese ink, and installation, video, sound, and performance art were invited to participate by creating works on paper that extended content from their interviews. The works also inspired the imaginations and later practices of some of these artists.

To extend the interpretation of published materials and archives, the Library and Archive center created a project to present the widely acclaimed “Featured Artist—The Art Museum in Print” section from Modern Art issues spanning the period from 2016 to 2022. Six artists from this period were selected and then an exhibition was created based on published books, archival research, and artist documents with consideration given to signage, visitor flow, and the classification of materials in the exhibition venue. Visitors are invited to browse TFAM’s rich and varied publishing activity of the last decade, which features interviews with artists discussing their careers, ingenious works on paper, and other objects, as well as showcases the creativity and collectibility that distinguish contemporary art journals.

Artists were selected for the exhibition from those presented in Modern Art’s “Featured Artist” sections, which were created by editorial teams of different periods. The six artists Wang Yahui, Shi Jin-Hua, Mali Wu, Yao Jui-Chung, Chen Hui-Chiao, and Emily S. C. Yang each presented different forms of works on paper for “The Art Museum in Print.” Through its collection of books and documents, manuscripts and original small works loaned by artists, as well as artist catalogs, writings and collections, combined with the complete “The Art Museum in Print” paper artworks, and supplemented by the promotion of the Modern Art+ website, the comprehensive research and developmental trajectory of TFAM in the progression of contemporary art is presented.