With great support of the Ministry of Culture and Chinese Embassy in France, sponsored by Chinese Cultural Center in Paris and the National Art Museum of China, an exhibition entitled “Wu Guanzhong: Fusion and surpassing” opens at Chinese Cultural Center in Paris on Sept. 18, 2014. Chinese vice Premier Liu Yandong, paying a visit to France then, visits the exhibition on the opening day accompanied by vice minister of culture Ding Wei, Chinese Ambassador in France Zhai Jun and Director of Chinese Cultural Center in Paris Yin Fu. Fan Di’an, director of the National Art Museum of China, elaborates the artworks by Wu Guanzhong to vice Premier Liu Yandong. Mrs. Liu makes friendly communication with local visitors after the tour.  

Wu Guanzhong is an outstanding artist and artistic educator in the history of the Chinese art since the later half 20th century until the contemporary time. When he studied at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts de Paris in 1947, the artist was greatly influence by modern painting while doing researches into the tradition of European paintings. After returning from France, Wu Guanzhong devoted all his lifetime to exploring how to combine the western art with the Chinese art and explained the appeal and image of the traditional Chinese art with the western abstractive aesthetics. The artist explored an artistic path integrating and surpassing the boundary of the western and Chinese paintings and reflecting the spirit of the modern Chinese culture and finally opened the gate of the reform of the modern Chinese paintings.  

Wu Guanzhong is an envoy of China- France cultural exchange. Theartist was made an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 1991, awarded Gold Medal of Paris by the Paris City in 1993 and elected as academician of Académie des Beaux-Artsin 2002. The exhibition showcases a total of more than 40 pieces of masterpieces by the artist and includes three parts, namely, seeking simplicity and purity, exploring reforms and surpassing with freedom. The show intensively reflects artistic creation of the artist for half a century and witnesses the process of artistic exchange between the two countries.