"Untitled"

HSIAO CHIN

Hsiao Chin was born in Shanghai in 1935. After moving to Taiwan, he enrolled in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Taipei Provincial High School in 1951. After successfully graduating, on 31 December 1955 he and his colleagues formed the first abstract group in China, the Ton Fan, known as ‘The Eight Great Outlaws’, in stark contrast to the government, which was opposed to all forms of avant-garde. In 1956 he moved to Barcelona, where he became a friend and collaborator of Tàpies, Cuixart and Saura. At the end of the 1950s, Hsiao Chin created the Pintura A-O and Pintura Q in which he evolved from geometric abstractionism by reinterpreting the abstract art movements of the early 20th century. Dedicated to abstract art, he began to produce numerous pictures and paintings. The union of his parents' names gave rise to an acronym frequently used by the master to sign his works, Yu-lan. His first solo exhibition was at the Museo Municipal de Maturò, which was to have numerous replicas, but his main interest was maintaining contacts and cultural exchanges between Europe and Taiwan. In 1959 he moved to Milan and at the XXX Venice Biennale he met Franz Kline and Gordon Washburn, director of the Pittsburg International Exhibition, who took him to the United States in 1967. In the 1960s he founded a number of movements in Europe such as Movimento Punto, Surya Movement, Shaki Movement. In 1962 he married and after a series of European exhibitions moved with his wife to New York. After numerous exhibitions and a profound acquaintance with Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning he separated from his wife and returned to Milan where he taught Visual Theory at the European Institute of Design. In 1980 he returned to China for the first time after thirty years of forced absence. He then returned to Italy and held courses at the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino, Brera and Turin, relentlessly pursuing an international exhibition career. After the tragic loss of his only daughter, Hsiao Chin devoted his attention to the concept of rebirth and in his works expressed reflections derived from Taoist philosophies. In recent years, he has continued to work unceasingly, always faithful to his intention of art as communication and rediscovery of pre-existing energies, conveying his messages in a continuous series of splendid exhibitions such as the anthological exhibition held in the winter of 2009 in Milan and the major exhibition in 2001 at the Acadèmie Royale des Beaux-Arts and the Musèe d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain in Liège. Supported by video interviews, Master Hsiao Chin was able not only to show his highly cultivated technical evolution, but also to explain and disseminate the ideology that has always remained unchanged in his broad vision of an art that draws its origins from the inner strength of its own creator. After living and working in Milan for over 50 years, Chin moved to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where he passed away on 30 June 2023.