National Art Museum exhibits Xiong Bingming's works

An exhibition featuring famous Chinese-French artist and philosopher Xiong Bingming's artwork opened at the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) on Tuesday.

The exhibition displays 205 pieces of his work, including sculptures, oil paintings, prints, sketches, ink paintings, and calligraphy, among others.

Also known as Ping-Ming Hsiung, Xiong was born in Nanjing in 1922. He is the second son of famous Chinese mathematician Xiong Qinglai.

He was highly accomplished in areas of philosophy, literature, painting, sculpture, and calligraphy. He pursued his studies in France, where he lived for more than 50 years, blending Chinese and Western cultures in his works and forming a distinctive personal style.

Making important contributions to art development and research of art history, he was considered one of the important representatives of overseas Chinese artists in the 20th century. In 2002, he died in Paris at the age of 80.

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France and the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement, a series of work-study programs that brought Chinese students to France to work in order to pay for their study of Western science and culture. Xiong was one of them.

Looking at the development of Chinese art in the 20th century, it is not difficult to see that French culture has had a huge impact on the transformation of Chinese modern art that blends Chinese and Western cultures, said Wu Weishan, curator of the National Art Museum of China, adding that Xiong's experience is an example.

After Xiong's death, his wife Lu Bing'an donated a large number of his work to the NAMOC. Works on display are all from NAMOC's collection donated by Xiong's family and his friend Yang Zhenning.

The exhibition runs until December 15.