Taipei Fine Arts Museum

November 5, 2006 - This is actually the backside of the museum. The front side looks like sewage tunnels, like the Justin Herman Plaza sculpture in San Francisco. Not sure that's the best motif for fine arts, but Taipei isn't known for its arts. At least I haven't heard the greatest things about its arts museums, but I guess I should go in and see for myself. Taipei has other, more objective-type museums that are quite good.

Of course, there's the National Palace Museum, which is often a must-see for visitors. It's more of a Chinese historical/cultural museum, if you like that kind of stuff. I've been to it twice because their collection is so large they rotate it very often. The first time I went, which I posted about earlier this month, was a real yawner. If the exhibits on display interest me less than going to peoples' houses and looking through their cupboards, I have better uses for my time. The second time I went, they had a mind-blowing special exhibit on Sung Dynasty art and calligraphy. Oh, that was today.

I've also been to the Museum of World Religions which is pretty cool, except for getting hit by a car on the way there, unless you consider that sort of thing a religious experience. And way up at the far northern end of the MRT line and a ferry trip across the Danshuei River and then either a 3.5 km walk or a short bus ride is the Shisanhang Museum of Archeology, which is more a museum of the archeological discovery of the remains of a very unique aboriginal tribe that lived in that area. That was a pretty neat museum, especially since it's right on the site where they found the remains - right on the beach on the Taiwan Straits.


There's a park next to the Fine Arts Museum, I think it's called the Arts Park or something. A very nice environment for a museum. Sort of what Yerba Buena Gardens did for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. We Are What We Are ("La Cage Aux Folles")
2. Awaiting On You All (George Harrison)
3. Let It Be (The Beatles - Anthology)
4. Corcovado (Quiet Nights) (Cannonball Adderly & Sergio Mendes - ultralounge)
5. Talby (Pinback)
6. I Am One (Smashing Pumpkins)
7. My Heart Would Know (The The)
8. Bron-Yr-Aur (Led Zeppelin)
9. Stay (Pink Floyd)
10. You Won't Be An Orphan For Long ("Annie")