This document features Inner Light, a hand-picked artwork from the Universal Energy series, created in 1966 by Hsiao Chin. It can be seen as both a culmination of his Punto Movement period and a harbinger of the next phase of his career.
Since late 1950s, Lyrical Abstraction was in vogue in Paris, Hsiao Chin was exposed to different movements in Milan in the early 1960s, including Spatialism, Zero, Op Art, and Kinetic Art. These movements subverted not only the practice of traditional paintings on canvas but also the abstract painting styles that were then popular, and they completely transformed Hsiao Chin's pre-existing understanding of creativity.
Inner Light (1966) is the exemplary work from Hsiao's Punto period. This painting begins with the signature point of Movimento Punto, this time in the form of three concentric circles in the centre of the canvas, not only supporting the composition, but also expanding the scene of the paintings infinitely outward. The circles represent the essence of the origins of the universe, and from them, rays of light emit outward in an energy field, lending the picture planes a strong sense of movement. This composition of orderly fields of colours clearly shows the influence of Western geometric abstraction. However, of greater importance is how these paintings display an all-new artistic approach for Hsiao Chin: an exploration of the secrets of the origins of the universe.
Shambhala Mandala, circa 18th century, color on silk thangka.
The artist once stated that the murals of the Potala Palace in Tibet 西藏布達拉宮strongly influenced his creative production during this period, and a close look at the Sacred Map of Shambhala in the Heavenly Light Chamber of the Eastern Sunlight Hall of the Potala Palace reveals a strong connection with these masterpieces. In Tibetan Buddhism, Shambhala is a Utopian kingdom that, according to legend, is located near Mount Kangrinboqê, the highest peak in the Kailash Mountains in western Tibet. The Utopian vision of Shambhala is an important subject of the Tibetan art of thangka, in which universal themes of space, time, and cosmic origin are explored.
Hsiao Chin, Radiation, 1965, Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 85cm
The three concentric circles clearly correspond to the three levels of the Shambhala kingdom as portrayed in thangka and Tibetan murals. The rays radiating from the circles in the passionate space represent an invincible cosmic energy that destroys darkness. The artist took this ancient and wise artistic motif and adorned it in an avant-garde, abstract style. In this way, he not only stimulated Eastern culture, but also contributed a new essence to Western art. At the same time, we can see how the artist imparted the essence of Buddhism in the sleek and geometric composition of the work. He enlivened the geometry by sprinkling light-coloured paint on intense-coloured segments. He highlighted fluid and random effect in the geometric lines that are associated with reason and intentionality. As such, the cosmic sensibility created by the artist is impossible to miss.
Poster of Hsiao Chin’s solo exhibition at Galleria Il Canale, Venice, 1966
Concluding the Punto Movement was his “Punto 13” exhibition held at the Galleria Fanesi, in Ancona, Italy in 1966 when Hsiao Chin was very active in Europe. He then went to London for half a year to present his exhibition at Signals Gallery. At the same time, he opened an important solo exhibition at the Galleria Il Canale in Venice, Italy. It was also the year he made preparations for his move to New York City in 1967, leaving behind Milan and Europe where he had begun his career.
Crisscrossing many languages and cultures, Francesco Saba Sardi, award-winning Italian writer, essayist, and translator, was honoured by the President of the Italian Republic in 2005. Back in 1966, the foreword for Hsiao’s Venice exhibition was written by none other than Saba Sardi himself, and was included in the exhibition folio. This excerpt of the Italian cultural heavyweight’s foreword helps us appreciate this important work by Hsiao Chin in its entirety,
“Hsiao Chin may declare that he was led to painting by his meditations on the philosophy of Lao-Tze, may very well believe that his work is a transposition in figurative terms of ecstasy and purity, of the resignation and contemplation synthesized in Tao’s thought; but what really matters is the ideational procedure that he has worked out; and it is in terms of this same pictorial procedure that his works must be interpreted. Any attempt to retrace the creative process of expression, will of course lead us to the acknowledgement of Hsiao Chin’s individual and social roots. And it may be useful to consider the influence exerted on him, in the beginning, by Chinese figurative traditions in the popular sense and, more immediately, by the noble decorative work on monuments of historical importance, such as the Dunhuang cave paintings in inner Mongolia; and then by his arrival in the West, with the difficult and risky attempt (successfully brought off) to stitch together the lightness, immediacy, and cautious chromatic work of Chinese figurative history, and a few recent European achievements, to be found especially in the paintings of the last few years, based on the dialectic contrast between the unity of line and the solid compositional precision of the often symmetrical structures. Try putting Hsiao Chin’s work next to that of many others: his presence is overwhelming.”
