Different strokes

Yu noted that, throughout his life, Zao kept exploring to combine Western artistic language with the Chinese artistic spirit to create really integrated works.

He added that the intuitive expression of Zao through color, shape and the meaning of his pictures is actually a kind of spiritual dialogue between the East and the West, which touched and inspired the foreign artists.

The museum director mentioned Panamanian artist and architect Gabriel Wong's 4-meter-long work Fuchun Rock and Roll, for which the artist, by applying bright colors, created a "hot ink-and-brush painting" — as Wong put it — to infuse the image with a nostalgia for his tropical homeland.

The artist painted a miniature black-and-white version of the work at the same time, a tree with intertwined branches, a waterfall and overlapping peaks vividly conveying a traditional Chinese ink-and-brush temperament.

"Cultural exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations bring profound resources and vigor to the artists' creation. In Chinese culture, they may find alternative ideas and direction for creating," Yu said.