Zhu Jinshi (b. 1954) is one of China?s leading contemporary artists. His highly distinctive approach was apparent from the early 1980s when he made his first abstract paintings, which reflect the influence of Western painters Cy Twombly and Per Kirkeby. Zhu focused on the material qualities of paint, emphasising texture, mark-making and gesture as ends in themselves. But, Zhu went beyond Western antecedents with his art manifesting its own sensibility that drew on Chinese culture and traditional brush and ink painting. Fusing Western and Eastern sources, he emphasised the physical presence of paint so that it possessed its own reality. Between 1986?2000, Zhu lived and travelled abroad, diversifying his artistic range enormously. He created installation, objects, performance, video and photography. Since 2000, he has again made painting his principal means of expression and the present exhibition represents the latest developments in this renewed activity. Working now in China, he vastly increased the physical substance of his medium. Using pigment in industrial quantities, his surfaces became thicker with individual marks being applied in great slabs and strokes so that they project outwards. Colour, light, texture and atmosphere are vital elements that animate these extraordinary works, informing them with the mysterious aura of life. Product information Publisher ?Pearllam Galleries (January 1, 2013) Language ?English Hardcover ?336 pages ISBN-10 ?9881244102 ISBN-13 ?978-9881244109 Item Weight ?5.85 pounds