Silence in Chinese painting

The following text is a manifesto of the lessons learned during my stay in the People’s Republic of China between 1983 and 1990. In Peking, I studied traditional Chinese painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. As a foreigner coming to China to study Art from South America, the first thing is presumed is that there is an enormous cultural distance, to say the least. Perhaps this assumption is not so correct. As citizens of the world, we sometimes have more closeness than we might think. It is clear to me, that there is also room for enormous differences … which there are … but it must be said that similarities also exist. The fundamental questions about our existence have been asked and continue to be asked in all corners and cultures. That is part of the similarities. It is evident that the answers have not been the same and it depends a lot on the cultural niche in which we are located …… but … the more fundamental the question becomes … the closer and more universal the answer is.