Celebrating 45 years of championing Chinese contemporary art, Alisan Fine Arts’ 2026 “Then and Now” programme honours early French-influenced pioneers while spotlighting today’s practices. This exhibition at the gallery’s Central Hong Kong location anchors the “Then” with Zao Wou-ki, Chu Teh-chun, T’ang Haywen, and Walasse Ting, francophone Chinese diaspora masters who fused Chinese cultural roots with post-war Parisian modernism. From Zao’s atmospherics and Chu’s calligraphic lyrical abstraction to T’ang’s meditative ink and Ting’s pop-bright sensuality, it maps a decisive shift that shaped global art—and sets the stage for a parallel “Now” exhibition at Alisan Atelier. Both are part of French May Arts Festival Associated Projects.

Paris as Catalyst

As China evolved in the 1920s, artists of the time were greatly impacted by Western modern art movements. Masters like Paul Klee for Zao Wou-ki, Nicolas de Staël for Chu Teh-chun, Henri Matisse and the CoBrA group for Walasse Ting, and frequent travels for T'ang Haywen—these inspirations opened the eyes of Chinese diaspora artists when they migrated to Paris.

A New Visual Language

In the development of modern art, Chinese artists were initially absent from the conversation. When they arrived in Paris, Zao, Chu, T’ang and Ting each forged distinct paths to assert Chinese diaspora artistic identity within the avant-garde.

For this exhibition, the works by Chu Teh‑chun and Walasse Ting are from their respective foundations and have never been shown before—offering audiences a rare glimpse into previously unseen chapters of their legacies. We present ink on paper works by Chu Teh-chun from the 1980s and 1990s, revealing his mastery of lyrical abstraction in monochrome and moderate formats. A significant canvas from the 1970s demonstrates the full force of his calligraphic vision. Zao Wou-ki’s versatility appears across oil, lithograph, etching and watercolour—a thoughtful selection showcasing his command of multiple media, anchored by a major 1970s canvas. T’ang Haywen’s contribution features a grouping of watercolour on paper works revealing his penchant for the triptych even in intimate formats, distilling gesture to essence through Taoist sensibility and Western immediacy. Walasse Ting is represented by a rare black and white canvas from 1959 and a vibrant grouping of birds, horses and women images exhibited for the first time, bearing testimony to love, life and beauty through powerful, effervescent brushwork.