(Milwaukee, WI)  The Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, will present Gao Xingjian, Ink Paintings 1983-1993 from April 10 through June 29.  Gao Xingjian is a Chinese artist, dramatist, translator and author who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2000. The Morat-Institut für Kunst und Kunstwissenschaft (Morat Institute for Art and Art History) Freiburg, Germany is lending the artwork for this exhibition. This marks the first American museum solo exhibition of this very important artist.  The exhibition opens April 10 at 6 p.m. with the lecture "Let the Past Serve the Present: Modern Chinese Art and Its Histories" by Dr. Kuiyi Shen, professor of Art History at Ohio University.  Dr. Shen is author of numerous works on Modern Chinese art including Word and Meaning: Six Contemporary Chinese Artists and A Century in Crisis: Tradition and Modernity in the Art of Twentieth Century China.  A reception at the Haggerty Museum follows from 7-8 p.m.

Gao Xingjian is a Chinese expatriate currently residing in Paris.  Gao was born January 4, 1940 in Ganzhou (Jiangxi province), China.  He received a degree in French and literature at the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute in 1962.  During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), Gao was sent to a re-education camp where he spent six years at hard labor.  Once released, he began writing essays, plays and short stories.  After Gao was mistakenly diagnosed with lung cancer in 1982, he proceeded upon a 10 month walking tour along the Yangtze River that served as the inspiration of his novel Soul Mountain.

Since 1986, all of Gao Xingjian's work has been censored in China.  He became an outspoken critic of the Chinese Government following the Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989.  Gao left the Chinese communist party following the student rebellion and was declared persona non grata by Chinaís leaders.  Gao Xingjian ultimately became a French Citizen in 1998.

Gao began painting as a child and used the income as his primary support while beginning his career as a writer.  He also uses his paintings as book cover art for his published works.  His artwork has been exhibited in over thirty cities including Beijing, Hong Kong, Paris, Berlin, London, New York, Vienna, and Moscow.  Gao is the recipient of major awards including the Chevalier de líOrdre des Arts et des Lettres, 1992, the Prix Communauté française de Belgique, 1994, the Prix du Nouvel An chinois, 1997 and the Nobel Prize in literature, 2000.

"Mr. Gao's rise to prominence as a painter parallels the growing importance and interest in Chinese Contemporary artists throughout the world," said museum director Dr. Curtis Carter.  "The Haggerty is pleased to bring this very important artist to Milwaukee."

Gao expressed his views on painting in a 1995 essay appearing in the Gao Xingjian: Tuschmalarei 1983-1993 catalogue: "The more I investigate, the more I discover that the potential of ink painting is far from being exhausted, even though this art form has been around for at least 1000 years.  This art is expressed differently in the hands of each individual artist, which is also why ink painting is continually invested with life."

Included in exhibition are abstract works such as Líangoisse (Anguish) 1986, Himmel und Überhimmel (Heaven and Beyond) 1989, Stupéfaction (Amazement) 1991, La montagne de líâme (The Mountain of the Soul) 1990, and representational works such as Un homme assis (A Seated Man) 1986, Le paysage cursif (The Winding Countryside) 1988, and Hermitage 1990.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Dr. Daniel Meissner, assistant professor of history at Marquette University, will present "China in the Twentieth Century" Saturday, April 26th 11:00-12:30 p.m. at the museum.  This lecture is part of a series of events presented by the Present Music China Project.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Apple Family Foundation and the Wisconsin Arts Board.

The Haggerty Museum of Art is located at North 13th St. and West Clybourn Avenue on the campus of Marquette University. Museum hours are Monday - Wednesday, Friday - Saturday, 10 am-4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 am-8 p.m.; and Sunday, noon-5 p.m.. Free parking is available in the Mary B. Finnigan Parking Lot (enter on 11th St. through Marquette Lot J). For more information on the exhibition or the Haggerty Museum, call 414/288-1669.