T’ang Haywen

T'ang Haywen is a Chinese French painter noted for his interest in both Abstract Expressionism and the ancient techniques of Chinese ink-brush painting. Originating in Xiamen, the artist embraced the spiritual tenets of Taoism. In the late 1930s, T’ang and his family moved to Vietnam to escape the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, then in 1948, moved to Paris to study medicine but enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts instead. Shortly after his studies, his work found favour among the avant-garde artists in Paris of the time.

 

Ink and watercolor were his predominant materials and his abstractions featured gracious brushstrokes in energetic colours evocative of Chinese calligraphy. He had his first exhibition in 1955 at the Galerie Voyelles and later exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1989. A contemporary of Zao Wu-Ki and Chu Teh-Chun, he is posthumously recognised as a pioneer of Chinese abstraction.

 

T’ang Haywen was born in 1927, Xiamen, China. Since his death in 1991, T’ang’s work has been widely exhibited including a travelling retrospective at the Oceanography Museum of Monaco, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Singapore Museum of Art, Museum of East Asian Art Berlin, the Ashmolean Museum Oxford and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum Taiwan. In 2002, a solo exhibition of his works was held at the Musée Guimet Paris and at the Shiseido Foundation Tokyo.In the coming year of 2024, Musée Guimet Paris will present another solo show for him and there will also have a solo show for him at Art Basel Hongkong 2024.