Hsiao Chin and Punto: Mapping Post-War Avant-Garde

Hsiao Chin spent his formative years in Europe experiencing the Western Modern Art movement. As a leading post-war Asian artist, he has contributed immensely to the development of avant-garde art and established himself prominently in the modern abstract movement in Asia. As a co-founder of Punto Movement in Milan during 1961-1966, Hsiao is the first and only post-war Chinese artist attempting to convey Eastern philosophical ideas and the concepts of mindfulness and self-contemplation in the Western pictorial language of abstraction. Hsiao's works are not only artistic representations of Asian philosophy but, in a broader context, are an intellectualised expression of Asian ideas in their essential forms. The understanding of the entire post-war avant-garde art scene would not be complete without mentioning Hsiao Chin and the Punto Movement, along with American Abstract Expressionism, French Lyrical Abstraction, and Japanese Gutai. This book records 13 Punto exhibitions, which demonstrates Hsiao's contribution to the international cultural realm throughout his artistic career. Included here are in-depth articles on Hsiao's historical significance in the twentieth century. The book also introduces his iconic oeuvres over the last six decades; work that reconciles Eastern and Western art prospects.