As part of the cultural exchange program for the Year of France in China, Chinese born artist Jiang Dahai is staging a homecoming solo exhibition of abstract ink paintings at the National Art Museum of China in the center of Beijing. The exhibition runs until March 12.

On display are at least 50 of Jiang's latest somewhat "vanguard" ink paintings.

"Since the early 20th century, active artistic and cultural interactions have been going on between China and France. Jiang's unique art presents itself as a new perspective and an intercultural text for understanding the chemistry between Chinese and French art," said Fan Di'an, associate-dean of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and a renowned art critic, at last week's opening ceremony of the art show.

Jiang was born in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province in 1949.

Since gaining his master's degree from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1980, he has held solo exhibitions and featured at group ones both at home and abroad.

In 1986 he went to France to further his studies, since then he has lived there as an expatriate.

Living in Paris has made it easier for him to absorb inspiration and stimuli from Western art traditions and current trends.

His art, nevertheless, remains deeply rooted in Chinese culture, he maintains.

Over the years, Jiang's artistic style has evolved gradually.

"Western influences have gone deep within and his works have come to look more like Western art, but actually they are not. In his ink works, both fuse naturally, if not perfectly," commented Yi Ying, a Beijing-based critic.

In the 1990s, Jiang created his famed oil and flax works entitled "Clouds Series" in which natural clouds were altered to become an integral part of his abstract imagery.

Most recently, Jiang has experimented with Chinese ink, the traditional xuan paper, or rice paper, in addition to Western painting materials, and certain techniques of traditional Chinese calligraphy.

In his ink paintings -- where the tones of light are totally effaced, the well textured elegant dots, lines and patches -- elusive formations of fragmented Chinese characters, seemingly casually written, have been turned into rhythmic, mysterious and abstract images.

Sometimes they appear to resemble real life subjects and images, but may also be interpreted as metaphysical signs, either way challenging the viewers' imagination.

No wonder his abstract ink paintings fascinate Pierre-Jean Remy, an academician with the French Academy, who wrote in the catalogue introducing Jiang's painting album: "One simple character, such as the one for 'book' or 'nought,' turns into a sign, unfolding broadly into moving contours or a surface supported on another surface.

"His lively toned ink paintings and oil paintings are all characterized by light shades, in which we find the artist's love for such Italian masters as Masaccio, Piero della Francesca and Morandi, whom he often mentions. In his works, too, we can see backgrounds from the masterpieces of Balthus, or the gorgeous coloration the latter applied to the walls of the Villa Medicis with a sponge."

At last weekend's exhibition opening, the artist said of his work: "We are living in an age of cultural diversity. Instead of following such trendy ones as installation, performance art, and video art, I choose to embrace relatively simpler and older art forms. Because, in my view, they are closer to the essence of art.

"The xuan paper, the Chinese ink and painting brush, and the marvelous effects the above three mediums and tools may jointly generate intrigue me so much," he said. Adding: "I may keep trying in this artistic adventure in the coming years."

(China Daily March 10, 2005)