Date｜30 April 2026 to 8 November 2026
Venue｜Galleries L, M, and N, 3F, National Museum of Modern Art, Tainan
Tsai Tsao-Ju (1919–2007), born Tsai Chin-Tien in Tainan, developed his artistic practice within an environment deeply shaped by local craftsmanship, folk belief, and traditional painting. His father, Tsai Chen-Kun, was a coppersmith skilled in drawing floral motifs for metalwork; his mother, Chen Ming-Hua, once painted bird-and-flower patterns at a ceramics workshop; and his uncle, Chen Yu-Feng, was an important folk painter in Taiwan. The crafts, temples, theatre stages, and folk beliefs that surrounded Tsai from childhood became the spiritual ground to which he would repeatedly return throughout his artistic career.
Taking “Dual Modes” and “Numinous Traces” as its central ideas, this exhibition revisits Tsai Tsao-Ju’s creative path across folk painting, ink painting, glue-colour painting, plein-air studies, and mythological figures. “Dual Modes” refers not only to the two modes of brushwork through which he moved between temple painting and artistic creation, but also to his constant movement between tradition and modernity, folk practice and academic art, sketch and finished work. “Numinous Traces” responds to his nickname, “Tsao-Ju the Immortal”, while also pointing to the spirituality and mysterious atmosphere found in his depictions of immortals, religious imagery, and imagined worlds.
Through artworks, sketches, archival materials, and related objects, the exhibition presents how Tsai gradually arrived at his ideal pictorial structures through repeated composition, tracing, and collage. From mythological figures, historical narratives, and theatrical scenes to street views and studies from nature, Tsai’s art was not a simple continuation of tradition. Rather, it established a distinctive visual world rooted in local craftsmanship and personal perception, carrying the cultural depth of Tainan.
This exhibition also continues the recent trajectory of donations, collections, and research concerning Tsai Tsao-Ju’s works and archival materials. By reorganising his creative development, it reflects on how an artist moved between folk culture, craftsmanship, belief, and modern art, leaving behind, through his dual modes of brushwork, numinous traces within the history of Taiwanese art.