Exhibition celebrates intellectual sculptor

Hsiung Ping-ming was born in Nanjing and lived in France for 55 years until his death. He taught Chinese culture, philosophy and calligraphy for decades at the Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations of the New Sorbonne University in Paris. He also drew, painted and made sculptures with great passion. His artworks show the influence of the modern art movements prevailing in Europe, and revealed the scope and depth of the studies he carried on in Chinese literature, philosophy and calligraphy, leveraging his artworks to new philosophical heights.

"The Returning Sculptor", an exhibition at the National Art Museum of China running through May 11, commemorates the 100th anniversary of Hsiung's birth. It gathers more than 150 artworks from his oeuvre, transmitting a charisma, tenderness and modesty and the open mind of his scholarly pedigree. The exhibits are from separate donations by Hsiung's family and C.N. Yang, the Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist and a lifelong friend of Hsiung since they were 7 years old.