Born in 1940 in Ganzhou, China, Gao Xingjian is a painter, author, dramatist, director, and critic living in Paris. He paints with traditional materials- rice paper, Chinese brushes and ink. His large-scale paintings are at once abstract and figurative.  Gao's paintings have been featured in more than 30 international exhibitions.  In 1992 he was given the French Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and in 2000, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.