Ink Paintings by Gao Xingjian: The Nobel Prize Winner

by Gao Xingjian, Franz Armin Morat (Introduction)

This collection of over 60 ink paintings by Gao Xingjian represents his philosophy and painting style. Gao believes that the world cannot be explained and that artistic creation offers the only way to escape into meaning. The images convey these aspects of an inexplicable world-the black-and-white inner world that underlies the complexity of human existence. Drawn in traditional Chinese black ink on rice paper, each painting is characterized by a spontaneous overflow of the ink, creating metaphorical abstract images.

90 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Gao Xingjian is a Chinese-born novelist, playwright, critic, and painter. An émigré to France since 1987, Gao was granted French citizenship in 1997. The recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Literature, he is also a noted translator (particularly of Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco), screenwriter, stage director, and a celebrated painter.