This ambitious project is the result of the initiative of a Chinese collector and patron of the arts, DENG Xihong, who was impelled by the desire to show three generations of distinguished Chinese artists whom she felt deserved to have the same aura in the Occident as other stars of contemporary art promoted by the media. The artists she defends, trained in the techniques of pictorial art, are central figures in the Chinese cultural panorama, much esteemed by the public and highly rated on the Asiatic art market.

This exhibition is coordinated by FAN Dian, director of the NAMOC in Beijing (National Art Museum of China). It has received the endorsement of the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China.

It brings together forty Chinese and French artists, including YANG Feiyun, GUO Runwen, CHAO Ge, HONG Ling and Pierre SOULAGES, Gérard GAROUSTE, Yan PEI MING.
In organizing this exhibition DENG Xihong wished to show the decisive role occupied by France in international culture in the 20th century.

It does indeed reveal to what extent the tradition of the teaching of art in France influenced Chinese painting and sculpture. Chinese artists born in the 30’s came to study art in France in the 50’s and passed on those techniques acquired in Paris to the younger generations upon returning to China. After the end of the Cultural Revolution in the 1980’s, China opened to the world and created new relations with the Occident. The work of new generations of artists, inspired by a large variety of sources and mediums, participated in the development of contemporary Chinese art, while other new avant-garde movements were just beginning to see the day.

This exhibition aims to show the crossing of two traditions of pictural art, removed from the context of ideology, market or passing trends.