Hsiao Chin

Hsiao Chin was born in Shangai in 1935.

After moving to Taiwan, in 1951 he enrolled at Taipei National University Of The Arts. After getting his degree, along with some collegues in 1955 he founded the first Chinese abstract group, called Ton Fan, also known as " The Big Eight Outlaws". The group was at odds with Chinese government which stood against every form of avant-garde.

In 1956 he moved to Barcelona, where we became friend and worked with Tàpies, Cuixart, Saura. At the end of the Fifties Hsiao Chin created Pintura A-O and Pintura Q, where he found his evolution from geometric abstractionism reenacting artistic abstract movements of the beginning of the XXth century. He focused on abstract art and started to make many paintings. Often to sign his works he uses the acronym Yu-lan, a result of combining his parents' names.

His first solo show was first held at Museo Municipal de Maturò then in many other locations. However, his main interest was to maintain contacts and cultural exchanges between Europe and Taiwan. In 1959 he moved to Milan and at XXX Venice Biennial he met Franz Kline and Gordon Washburn, who was Pittsburg International Exhibition director and who brought him to the United States in 1967. In the Sixties he founded some art movements in Europe such as Point Movement, Surya Movement, Shaki Movement. In 1962 he got married and after having some exhibitions in Europe he moved to New York with his wife. In the United States he had many shows and had a deep connection with Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning. After getting separated from his wife he moved back to Milan where he started teaching Visual Theory at Design European Institute. In 1980 he went back to China after thirty years of enforced absence. Back to Italy, he taught at Fine Arts Academy of Urbino, Brera and Turin, keeping on with international exhibitions. After the tragic death of his only daughter, he dedicated his attention to the concept of rebirth and in his works he expressed thoughts about Taoist philosophies.

In the past few years he kept working constantly considering art both as communication and rediscovery of pre-existing energies, giving his messages in a ongoing series of stunning exhibitions such as his retrospective exhibition held in 2009 in Milan and the great 2001 exhibit at the Acadèmie Royale des Beaux-Arts and at the Musèe d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain in Liege.

Appearing in video interviews, Hsiao Chin was able not only to prove his very taken technique evolution, but also to tell and spread his unaltered ideology about art. In Chin's vision, art draws its origins in the interior strenght of its own creator.

He currently lives and work in Milan.