In 2023, the descendants of the prominent Japanese colonial era watercolor artist Ni Chiang-Huai (1894-1943) united to gather up Ni’s paintings, as well as his collection of artworks and books, together with his drawings, sketchbooks and personal journals, and to form an archive they conceptualized as a “time capsule,” which they donated to Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Such a donation of items from a single artist is unique in the museum’s 40-year history, in both its scope and quality. This batch of nearly 500 paintings and documents had long been scattered among Ni’s heirs, and for the sake of this donation, they brought them together again. Clearly, this held great significance for the study of Taiwanese art history, and therefore, TFAM immediately initiated the process of restoring the paintings and researching the artist’s papers and files. The exhibition “Virtue and Beauty: A Tribute to Ni Chiang-Huai” presents the results of this research at the current stage. Moreover, it constitutes TFAM’s second retrospective of the artist—following “A Journey into Formosan Landscapes: The Works of Ni Chiang-Huai” in 1996—offering a look at the creative environment from which his art arose and tracing the trajectory of his artistic career.

The title of this exhibition, “Virtue and Beauty,” is taken from an entry in Ni’s journal: “A noble person cherishes virtue. Art delights in beauty.” The intent of the title is to highlight his unique and profound artistic thought and ideals. Ni not only found value in art because it “champions beauty and conceals ugliness,” but he also emphasized that “a noble person encourages goodness and shuns evil.” That is to say, beyond practicing art, he also expected himself to foster inner virtue, spiritual cultivation, and even social responsibility. Of course, he was inspired by the character and spirit of his mentor Ishikawa Kinichiro. But we cannot overlook that Ni’s view of art was deeply rooted in his own realization of the spirit and values of modern civilization. He had a profound understanding of art as an essential element of modern society, and this drove him to shoulder the mission of promoting the development of art in Taiwan.

In the latter half of the 1920s, as knowledge of Western art and its atmosphere of creativity gradually spread throughout Taiwan, Ni actively devoted himself to organizing and running painting societies and helping found art academies, not only embracing the image of a watercolor artist, but also taking on the role a patron of art. In the late 1930s, he undertook his ultimate mission: establishing the Baofung Art Museum. Unfortunately, he was unable to fulfill this lifelong ambition, due to his untimely passing. Yet now, more than 80 years later, these donations allow us to cross-reference his paintings, photos, books and documents and thus restore the context of the art museum he named “Baofung” (meaning “Pinnacle of Treasure”). Likewise, we are able to explore Ni’s motivations: Through the institution of a museum, he sought to introduce the values of modern civilization to a society in the midst of transformation. Ni Chiang-Huai was among the first Taiwanese painters to come into contact with the concepts of Western art, and here, we can witness how he articulated his own grand vision for this new field of creativity, by conceptualizing and imagining a “Pinnacle of Treasure.”

We sincerely thank the Museum Friends Association and the Hui-Neng Chi Arts and Culture Foundation for their generous support of the Time Capsule Artwork Conservation Project.