The award giving and opening ceremony of “The 43th National Oil Painting Exhibition” was held at Bo-ai Gallery, National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Ministry of Culture, in the morning of August 10. The orchestra of Wego Private Bilingual High School played music before the ceremony started.
“Creative Oil Painting Society of R.O.C.” was established by many Taiwanese senior painters in 1974. The 43th exhibition takes place this year. It is the oil painting art society with the longest history, holding the member exhibition and competition grandly every year and making the practical achievement in leveling up art education and the creative quality of oil painting in our country. Today there are 112 great oil paintings exhibited at Bo-ai Gallery, east and west Culture Gallery of National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, including 85 works of the members and 27 works of the competition winners. The prize is exclusively sponsored by Cathay United Bank Culture and Charity Foundation to encourage the new generation and art lovers to actively participate.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Xiao Zong-huang, said in his speech that after “Tai-Yang Art Society” was established by the local painters in Taiwan in 1934, it has become the most important force to promote painting in Taiwan. “Creative Oil Painting Society of R.O.C.” was established in 1974. It has a complete planning for exhibitions and competitions every year. In recent years, with the guidance of Chairman Su Hsien-fa, it has become the second largest art society to Tai-Yang. Therefore, it has the largest private scale in Taiwan in terms of the number of the oil painting submissions. He expressed the gratitude to Mr. Su and oil painting society for their hard work and to Cathay United Bank Culture and Charity Foundation for sponsoring the competition for years and encouraged National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall to continue to support and hold such exhibition.
Director-general of National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Liang Yung-fei, said in his speech that typhoon Lekima stroke Taiwan when the exhibition was arranged. He is grateful to the staff for completing the exhibition arrangement on time regardless of the weather condition. National Oil Painting Exhibition has come to the 43th year. Besides enriching their own creation, the chairmen of the organizer, Creative Oil Painting Society of R.O.C., also contribute their life to passing down the painting career, building and constructing the priceless art history in Taiwan through the competitions and exhibitions, and supporting the students and young people who love oil painting from generation to generation. It is a career and benevolence to both themselves and others. At the same time, he also expressed his gratitude to Cathay United Bank Culture and Charity Foundation for its long-term sponsoring and offering service. It is expected that there will be more domestic foundations and non-profit organizations to support culture and art financially so as to ease the art and cultural groups’ financial burden when holding competitions, make students have more budgets, and enrich the art life in Taiwan.
At the same time, Director-general Liang also said at present the memorial hall is having a trial activity of playing music in the exhibition space. He is grateful to the orchestra of Wego Private Bilingual High School for giving a free performance. In the future, the hall will continue to hold the related activities by integrating visual art and performing art to bring the visitors the new experience and feeling. As Chairman of Cathay United Bank Culture and Charity Foundation, Li Ming-xian, mentioned in his speech, besides continuing to support “Creative Oil Painting Society of R.O.C.” and “Tai-Yang Art Society” every year, the foundation also has an art center to mainly cultivate the local artists. It will be moved to a new location this October. With the assistance of Chairman Su, it will hold the charity exhibition and increase the depth of the foundation in art promotion.
At last, Chairman of Creative Oil Painting Society of R.O.C., Su Hsien-fa, in his speech expressed his gratitude to the art lovers for their hard work and Cathay United Bank Culture and Charity Foundation for the support. After the foundation started to sponsor the competition, the number of submissions has risen greatly and the better effect has been achieved.
This year, the national oil painting exhibition has selected 27 works. Gold Award (Cathay Award) winner, Chen Xian-zhang, won the prize of NT200,000. Silver Award winner, Cai Cheng-you, won the prize of NT200,000. Bronze Award winner is Shao Wen-feng. There are five Merit Award winners, including Zhang Guo-er, Xue Hong-wei, Luo Wei-jun, Liang Chong-yao, and Lin and hui-lin. There are two winners of Chen Yin-Hui Award, Hong Jun-ming and Lu Zheng-yang. There are sixteen Judges’ Award winners, including Chen Tai-hua, Zhuang Cheng-han, Chen Shu-zhen, Chen Yu-feng, Qiu Fan-ting, Wu Dai-jin, Chen Li-jian, Xie Ming-ji, Xu Zhao-hui, Liu Bo-yi, You Jin-xian, Wang Hong-yin, Li Mei-hua, Lin Zhao-jun, Liu Qiu-hua, and Shen Yun-jin. Jury Award is given to He Hui-zhi.
“The 43th National Oil Painting Exhibition” will grandly take place at Bo-ai Gallery from August 10 to August 28. We sincerely welcome the art lovers and talents to visit us. For more information, please call the service counter of the hall at (02)27588008, ext. 545, 546 or visit the website of National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall www.yatsen.gov.tw.