In Europe, Hsiao immediately recognized an affinity between his art and Art Informel; indeed, he saw the movement’s gestural vocabulary as the ground for a possible hybridization between Western and Eastern aesthetic traditions. However, the many Informel painters’ often uncredited references to Eastern calligraphic art prompted him to rediscover the philosophical motivations that historically inspired the Chinese literati.

Hsiao entered into dialogue with major exponents of art movements contemporary to Punto – from Spatialism to New Tendencies – questioning the scientist and productivist substratum of late European modernism and anticipating the widespread references to Eastern philosophies in 1970s art (suffice it to think of Alighiero Boetti’s Zen-derived maxims, such as “bringing the world into the world” or “giving time to time”).

Michele D’Aurizio