Beyond ownership: Pierre Chen’s journey from private collection to public legacy

This November, The Scorpion and the Frog: Masterworks from the YAGEO Foundation Collection opens at Taichung Art Museum, bringing together 66 works that span five centuries of artistic achievement. Featuring artists as diverse as Jacopo Tintoretto, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Mark Rothko, Gerhard Richter and Louise Bourgeois, the exhibition marks the first collaboration between the YAGEO Foundation and Taichung Art Museum, as well as the most comprehensive presentation of the Foundation’s collection in Taiwan to date.

Yet the exhibition is more than a gathering of masterpieces. It offers a rare glimpse into the vision of Pierre Chen, one of the world’s most influential collectors, whose lifelong engagement with art has been shaped not by categories, trends or market cycles, but by curiosity, intuition and an enduring belief in the power of art to connect people across cultures, generations and disciplines.

For Chen, collecting has never been an end in itself.

‘Collecting has always been something very personal to me,’ he reflects. ‘It stems from personal interest and curiosity, as well as the experience accumulated through spending many years with art.’ But as the collection has grown and evolved over the course of several decades, so too has his sense of responsibility. ‘I believe that I should take a more active role in bringing it to a wider audience, moving beyond merely personal ownership.’

That philosophy lies at the heart of The Scorpion and the Frog. While many private collections remain largely unseen, Chen has increasingly embraced the idea that great works gain new relevance through public engagement. Presented in Taiwan for the first time, many of the works in the exhibition will enter into dialogue not only with one another but also with audiences encountering them in a new cultural context.

‘For me, its significance lies not simply in bringing important works to Taiwan for the first time,’ he says, ‘but in allowing works originating from different periods, cultures and contexts to be seen in a different environment under the same space.’

A collection without boundaries

The exhibition’s title derives from the well-known fable of the scorpion and the frog, a story often interpreted as a meditation on the tension between instinct and reason. It is an apt framework for a collection built over nearly five decades through a balance of both.

When asked whether the exhibition’s juxtaposition of artists across centuries reflects his own approach to collecting, Chen is unequivocal. ‘When I collect, I do not begin by setting a very clearly defined framework for myself,’ he explains. ‘Classification, period and geography are of course important, but ultimately, it is the work itself that draws me in.’

This openness has resulted in a collection that resists conventional boundaries. Renaissance portraiture converses with contemporary abstraction; psychological intensity meets spiritual contemplation; Eastern and Western traditions intersect in unexpected ways.

‘A great work can enter into dialogue with another even when they come from entirely different periods or cultures,’ Chen says. ‘To me, this is one of the most interesting aspects of collecting.’

Accordingly, The Scorpion and the Frog does not present a linear history of art. Instead, it invites visitors to discover resonances and relationships across time. The dramatic pairing of Jacopo Tintoretto’s Portrait of Cardinal Marcantonio da Mula with Francis Bacon’s Study for a Pope VI is among the exhibition’s most striking examples, linking two artists separated by four centuries through their equally probing examinations of power, authority and the human condition.

Such dialogues are central to the exhibition’s curatorial vision, but they also reflect the way Chen himself has long lived with the collection.

‘It is not about arranging works according to art history,’ he says, ‘but rather about gradually discovering, over many years of collecting, relationships between them that I may never have anticipated.’

Living with art

Although he is widely recognised as one of the world’s foremost collectors, Chen has often expressed discomfort with the word ‘collecting’.

‘I prefer to say that I live with art,’ he explains. ‘I have never really thought of art as something that is complete once it has been collected. For me, when a work enters the collection, it is only the beginning of another relationship.’

Over time, artworks become companions. Their meanings shift as the collector changes, revealing new dimensions at different moments in life. Coming from the technology industry, Chen describes art as a space of reflection and renewal, a realm distinct from the demands of business.

‘Art has become part of the way I live,’ he says. ‘It continually renews the way we see the world and, in a very real sense, fills life with vitality and colour.’

Art has also introduced him to a global community of friends, curators, artists and fellow collectors. What begins as a shared interest often develops into something more enduring. ‘We may come from different cultural backgrounds and speak different languages, but a shared interest in art creates a very natural basis for exchange.’ Chen says.

Over the years, those relationships have extended across institutions, museums and the international art world, including a longstanding friendship with Christie’s specialists and experts. Built over decades, the relationship has been grounded in mutual respect, shared enthusiasm and countless conversations about art, collecting and connoisseurship.

The collector’s eye

For Chen, intuition remains indispensable. Yet instinct alone is never enough.

‘The first moment when a work truly stays with you is often intuitive,’ he says. ‘You see it and experience an immediate response, even before you can clearly explain why you are drawn to it.’ Over time, however, that instinct is deepened through experience, study and looking.

‘When I was younger, perhaps I was more easily captivated by a work at first glance,’ he reflects. ‘Today, I still trust that first impression, but I also spend more time understanding who the artist is, where the work sits within the broader context of their practice, and whether it can truly stand the test of time.’

The works assembled in The Scorpion and the Frog reflect this balance between immediate response and sustained engagement. Several exhibition highlights entered the YAGEO Foundation Collection through Christie’s over the years, among them Andy Warhol’s Self Portrait, Cy Twombly’s Untitled (Rome), Lucian Freud’s Francis Bacon, David Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) and Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy.

Taken together, these works offer a glimpse into the breadth of Chen's collecting vision. Rather than following a single school, period or movement, the collection embraces diverse artistic voices united by their ability to reward repeated looking and sustained contemplation.

Among the exhibition's highlights is Hockney's Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), one of the defining images of post-war British art. Since entering the collection, the painting has become a touchstone within a broader constellation of works that explore identity, human relationships and the act of seeing itself.

Elsewhere, Warhol's late Self Portrait presents a striking meditation on image and self-invention, while Freud's portrait of Francis Bacon brings together two towering figures of twentieth-century art, capturing a friendship and creative dialogue that shaped an era.

Viewed together, these works embody what Chen values most in collecting: not adherence to any particular category, but the unexpected conversations that emerge between artists, periods and perspectives.

‘The best collecting decisions often happen when both intuition and reason are present at the same time,’ he says.

Sharing as stewardship

If the exhibition marks a milestone, it is also part of a much broader mission.

Within the international art community, it is said, that visitors to Taipei have two must-see cultural destinations: the Palace museum and the YAGEO Foundation. Founded in 1999, the YAGEO Foundation has long championed artistic exchange across borders through loans and collaborations with major museums and cultural institutions worldwide, including Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, Tate Modern, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the National Museum of Modern Art and Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.

For Chen, these partnerships have reinforced a conviction that collecting and sharing are inseparable.

‘After establishing the Foundation, I gradually came to realise that the value of a collection does not lie solely in ownership,’ he says. ‘When a work enters a museum or travels to different cities, it can reach audiences of different generations and cultural backgrounds, each bringing their own perspectives and experiences.’

The Foundation’s role, as he sees it, is not simply to preserve art but to ensure that it remains visible, accessible and relevant. ‘If these encounters can encourage curiosity, broaden perspectives or inspire a deeper appreciation of art, then the collection can have a life and purpose well beyond private ownership.’

That commitment extends into the future. Alongside its continued participation in international artistic exchange, the Foundation is planning new cultural and art spaces on the Taiwan University campus and in Taipei Yangmingshan Park. Through exhibitions, programmes and public initiatives, it hopes to bring art closer to everyday life and create new opportunities for Taiwan’s cultural landscape.

The setting for The Scorpion and the Frog reflects that same forward-looking ambition. Designed by SANAA’s Pritzker Prize-winning architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, Taichung Art Museum forms part of Taiwan’s first cultural complex integrating a public library and an art museum. It is an environment conceived not simply as a venue for display, but as a place of encounter, learning and exchange.

‘I hope visitors will experience the works in their own ways,’ Chen says, ‘allowing them to inspire new dialogues and new experiences.’

For younger audiences especially, his advice is disarmingly simple.

‘You do not need to possess deep knowledge of art history,’ he says. ‘You do not need to know the market value of a work, nor do you need to understand an artist’s status beforehand.’ Instead, trust your own response.

‘If a work makes you curious, spend a little more time with it. If it leaves you confused, there is no need to rush to find an answer. If this exhibition leads someone to become interested in an artist for the first time, and they leave wanting to see more of that artist’s work, or even begin to develop their own relationship with art, I think that would already be something very meaningful.’ Chen adds with a smile.

It is a philosophy that has guided Pierre Chen throughout nearly five decades of collecting. And it is the philosophy that ultimately animates The Scorpion and the Frog: not a lesson in art history, but an invitation to look, to wonder and to discover unexpected connections.

After all, as Chen’s remarkable journey demonstrates, the most meaningful collections are not built to be possessed. They are built to be shared.

The Scorpion and the Frog: Masterworks from the YAGEO Foundation Collection will be on view at Taichung Art Museum from 20 November 2026 to 4 April 2027.