The Ministry of the Interior’s Kinmen National Park Administration Office has held a book launch detailing the decade-long efforts of art restorer Kuo Chiang-sung (郭江宋) and work to restore 21 large paintings related to the Battle of Guningtou (古寧頭).
The Guningtou Battle occurred in Kinmen from Oct. 25 to Oct. 27, 1949, when Nationalist forces successfully repelled two regiments of the China’s People’s Liberation Army and kept the islands out of China’s hands. It marked the failed attempt of Chinese Communist Party troops to seize Kinmen and establish a foothold for further advances against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) troops that had relocated to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War.
The book detailed Kuo’s interviews with artisans and other background investigations, which exposed the rich history behind the paintings, office director Cheng Jui-chang (鄭瑞昌) said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
The book also helps readers understand the background behind creating such paintings and learn Kuo’s feelings about the restoration efforts, he added.
The office hoped the book would further enhance Kinmen’s unique “warzone” culture and help garner more public attention to preserve the historic sites of that period and event, especially following the 75th anniversary of the battle in October, Cheng said.
Kuo, who double-majored in cultural heritage conservation and research in art and creation at the Madrid Complutense University, said he was obligated to work on-site for most of the paintings, as their size made relocation difficult.
Indicating his white restoration clothes, Kuo joked that some visitors to the Guningtou Battle Museum and the General Hu Lian Memorial Hall — which held 13 and eight of the paintings respectively — often mistook him for a doctor offering pro-bono medical services.
During the restoration process, he had met and traded opinions with several knowledgeable collectors about the subject, Kuo said.
The experience was unique, as he was unaware of any other county or city that housed a collection of paintings that artistically represented acts of history, Kuo said.
He avoided over-embellishments or over-restoration during the process and tried to respect the original work as much as possible, Kuo said, adding that his principles during the process were to “return the painting to how it would have appeared when completed.”
The Kinmen Guningtou Battle Museum was first constructed by the Republic of China Army’s Kinmen Garrison Command in 1984, and was turned over to the office in 2000 and made available to the public in 2001, the office said.
All 21 paintings were completed in 1984, and one or two paintings were rotated out of the exhibit for restoration starting in 2014, the office added.
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