心象繪畫──高行健
Vision Intérieure: The Art of Gao Xingjian
Date: 2025/09/23 Tue.－2025/11/23 Sun.
Venue: NTNU Art Museum Gallery 1 & 2 (Heping Campus Ⅱ, No. 129, Sec. 1, Heping E. Rd., Da’an Dist., Taipei City)
Organizer: National Taiwan Normal University, Art Museum, Gao Xingjian Center
Co-organizer: Fondation Taïwano-Française pour l’Education et la Culture
▌ Introduction
You choose the greatest possible freedom under the conditions of society and the times,
you choose the freedom not to be concerned with market trends,
you choose the freedom not to follow fashionable art concepts,
you choose the freedom to engage in the art you most want to,
you choose the freedom to engage in what suits your individual artistic taste. ──Gao Xingjian, Another Kind of Aesthetics
An encounter with Gao Xingjian does not initially present concrete imagery, but rather evokes an ethereal, evanescent atmosphere. Layered ink washes in varying tonalities, whether lines of flying white strokes rendered through freehand brushwork or saturated ink weighed with contemplative gravity, seem to trace inner emotions and memories still in formation. Neither conforming to traditional Chinese landscape or figure painting, nor extending from Western abstraction, Gao’s works are what he calls “vision intérieure,” which navigate a liminal space between reality and abstraction and capture the flow of inner experiences.
In the fluidity of his ink and brush, occasional forms emerge: of minimalist silhouettes gazing into the distance or traversing unfamiliar terrains; and hazy outlines of the sun, moon, or distant dwellings. These elements comprise the visual lexicon of his inner landscape.
In contrast to Gao’s interrogations of absurd reality and ideological constructs in his literary and theatrical oeuvre, Gao’s painting is a thoroughly introspective practice that is neither outwardly declarative nor seeking shared resonance. Instead, they are a solitary journey through the psyche and the artist’s silent dialogue with the depths of his own consciousness, expressed through the grey tonalities of ink. This exhibition presents a selection of works created by Gao Xingjian from 1989 to the present, generously donated to National Taiwan Normal University. Together, they reflect the artist’s unwavering aesthetic pursuit: grounded in interiority, transcending the boundary between the real and the imagined, and constructing an artistic space shaped by freedom, lyricism, and solitude. Gao once wrote that painting must “return to the visual perceptions and the inner self, to the spirit.” In the rhythmic flow of ink and blankness, viewers are invited to gaze and reflect, and encounter the spiritual dimension the works reveal.
Gao Xingjian, the 2000 Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature, is a renowned multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans novels, plays, poetry, painting, and directing. His works, exploring humanity’s existential dilemmas, earned him recognition from the Swedish Academy “for an œuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama.” His novels Soul Mountain and One Man’s Bible are milestones in 20th-century Chinese literature. His plays, such as The Other Shore, Fugitives, and Bus Stop, have seen global success with over 130 productions to date.
Gao’s distinctive paintings have been exhibited worldwide, with more than 100 solo shows and over 50 published catalogues and artbooks dedicated to his visual work.
Gao Xingjian has received numerous prestigious international awards, including the French Order of Arts and Letters (1992); the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Italian Premio Letterario Internazionale Mondello (2000); the Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, and the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement (2002).
His accolades also include the Library Lion Medal from the New York Public Library (2006), the Milan Art Festival Special Tribute Award (2008), the Gold Medal of the European Merit Foundation (2010), the Gold Medal of the French Renaissance (2012), the Premio Roma (2019), and the Commander of the French Legion of Honor (2023).
Gao Xingjian has resided in Paris since 1987. He is a Chair Professor at National Taiwan Normal University and the recipient of the university’s Honorary Doctorate in Literature.
▌ Cross-Border Conversation Live Stream
Lecture by Gao Xingjian
Title: A Creation Beyond Boundaries
Date: November 13, 2025, Thu. 17:30–18:30
The live streaming links will be announced before the lecture begins. Please stay tuned for further details.
The event will be conducted in Chinese.