Hsiao Chin and his unexplored history, 1958 till present

Hsiao Chin is one of the artists that allows us to see the distinctive abstract art movement in post-war Europe, that is at least as ambitious and interesting as that of the US. This revelatory presentation at 3812 Gallery Hong Kong will focus on his transformative periods, from 1958 till present. It reveals Hsiao Chin’s remarkable artistic achievement as a post war abstract master and his groundbreaking contribution, bringing Eastern spirituality and western abstract art together.

Hsiao Chin has a strong claim to be the most important living Chinese artist in Europe and the most important European artist in China. His ‘in-between’ status is the reason why art history cannot quite find the right place for him, despite his presence in museum collections from New York’s Metropolitan to Rome’s National Galerie and from Hong Kong’s M+ to Shanghai’s Long Museum, and recent one-person exhibitions at the Song Museum, Beijing, Mark Rothko Art Centre, Daugavpils and Musee Guimet, Paris.

In 1958, Hsiao Chin arrived in Spain, befriended Tapies, introducing him to Buddhism – and forged a remarkable idiom for a ground-breaking body of abstract work. In 1960 Hsiao Chin moved to Milan where he co-founded the avant-garde movement Punto, became close friends with Lucio Fontana – and made a body of work that has some connection with Kenneth Noland’s abstract work – but fuses, in acrylic, circles, Chinese aesthetics and an absorption in space travel (he had applied to NASA to be the first artist-astronaut). In 1967 he left Italy for a brief spell in New York before returning to Italy in 1972. Hsiao Chin returned to Asia, and visited Beijing in early 1980s, witnessing the new modern China.

Hsiao Chin’s works can be found in major collections around the world including Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), M+ Museum (Hong Kong), MGM Chairman’s Collection (Macau)

In recent years, Hsiao Chin has held major solo exhibitions in Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre (Daugavpils), Musée national des arts asiatiques Guimet (Paris), Song Art Museum (Beijing), and China Art Museum (Shanghai).