Timeline

This comparative chronology contextualizes T'ang's life and work.
It allows us to take the measures of his detachments and the originality of his journey as a free painter and as a traveler.

2017

CULTURAL & WORLD EVENTS

ABOUT T'ANG HAYWEN

2016

A painting of Frans Hals sold by Sotheby's in 2011 is reassessed as a fake. Artnet.com first issues on "The Year of the Fake" - a report on the forgeries which rocked the artworld in 2016. Donald Trump is elected as the US President.

Authentication in Art congress in The Hague, Netherlands: T'ang Haywen Archives gives a speech on Expertise of the Signatures of Chinese Modern Painter T’ang Haywen 曾海文

2015

Art & Culture exhibition China: Through the Looking Glass, curated by Andrew Bolton opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Establishment of T'ang Haywen Archives, as a registered Hong Kong Society. Solo exhibition at Christie's Hong Kong: Works from 1960s to 70s. The M+ Museum acquires an important ink on cotton canvas painting by T'ang, executed in 1964-1966, at a record price at auction (Sotheby's Boundless).

2014

Umbrella Movement - massive protests in Hong Kong.

Exhibition at De Sarthe Gallery in Hong Kong: T'ang Haywen, the Colours of Ink & Pioneers of Modern Chinese Painting in Paris. The M+ Museum in Hong Kong acquires a painting of T'ang, Birth of the Dragon. Record price at Christie's Hong Kong auction for an oil painting by T'ang circa 1975.

2013

Art Basel launches its first fair in Hong Kong. Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China exhibition in Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

T'ang Haywen - A Modern Chinese Painter, exhibition at Art Basel Hong Kong by FEAST Projects.

2012

Swiss art collector Uli Sigg donates a large part of his collection of Chinese contemporary art to M+ Museum in Hong Kong.

2011

Exhibition of The Forbidden City at the Louvre, Emperors of China & Kings of France at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

Exhibition T'ang Haywen, Inks & Watercolours at Yishu 8 art gallery, Beijing, China.

2010

Paintings of Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani... are stolen from Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

2009

UNESCO launches the World Digital Library.

2008

Barack Obama is elected as the 44th President of the United States. Summer Olympic Games takes place in Beijing, China.

2007

52th Venice Biennale.

Exhibition at Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asiatic Arts, Budapest, Hungary, Ink and Tao: T'ang Haywen.

2006

400th anniversary of the birth of Rembrandt.

Exhibition at Saint Louis de France Cultural Centre, Rome, Italy. – L'Ultimo Viaggio (The Last Journey)

2005

The World Trade Organization Conference takes place in Hong Kong.

Exhibition Encre/Chine: Inks by Jean Degottex, Gao Xingjian and T'ang Haywen at University Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong.

2004

George W. Bush is re-elected as US President.

2003

The World Health Organization issues a global alert on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Chine closes its border and airports.

2002

Frida, a biopic of painter Frida Kahlo premières at the Venice International Film Festival. Banksy creates Balloon Girl.

Retrospective Paths of Ink at Guimet Museum, Paris. Publication of monograph Paths of Ink. Exhibition at Shiseido Gallery of Shiseido Foundation in Tokyo, Japan. Publication of The Dream of Ximei, a tale by Jean-Paul Desroches illustrated by T'ang.

2001

9/11 terrorist attack in New York City, 3000 people die and an estimated $100 million worth of art is destroyed.

2000

The Tate Modern opens in London.

1999

Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper is placed back on display in Milan, Italy after two decades of restoration. The restoration of Sistine Chapel frescoes is completed in the Vatican City.

Exhibition Masters of Ink: Chang Dai Chien, T'ang Haywen and Zao Wou-Ki at the Pontoise Museum, France.

1998

The new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok opens, while the old Kai Tak Airport closes.

Exhibition at Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong & HO Gallery in New York.

1997

Sovereignty over Hong Kong is transferred to China from the United Kingdom. Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, designed by Frank Gehry, is opened.

Retrospective exhibition The Tao of Painting at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

1996

Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong stage a protest due to their forced repatriation.

Retrospective exhibition The Tao of Painting at the Musée Océanographique de Monaco. Participation in Tradition and Innovation, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Singapore Museum of Art, British Museum, Museum fur Ostasiatische Kunst, Cologne, Germany.

1995

Jacques Chirac is elected President of France. English painter Lucian Freud paints Benefits Supervisor Sleeping.

Two works are exhibited in Empire of the Dragons, exhibition at Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark.

1994

The Scream painted by Edvard Munch is stolen in Oslo. Kurt Cobain commits suicide. Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.

1993

Bill Clinton becomes the US President. Paul Cézanne still life painting Les Grosses Pommes sells for record breaking price in New York.

Last dispersion of the works of T'ang Haywen. First exhibition following the death of T'ang at the HO gallery, Hong Kong.

1992

Exhibition of Young British Artists at Saatchi Gallery in London, the acronym term YBA starts to prevail and designates a new group in contemporary art history.

The French public administration (Administration des Domaines) orders the sale at auction of all the belongings of T'ang. This includes a large number of artworks. Four dispersions are organized. Three in 1992, one in 1993.

1991

Basketball player Magic Johnson announces he has HIV. Damien Hirst creates The Physical Impossibility of death in the Mind of Someone Living.

Hong Kong film director Yonfan Manshih shoots T'ang's last known portrait. T'ang is hospitalized at Saint Joseph Hospital in Paris and is diagnosed with AIDS. He dies on 9th of September of respiratory complications at the age of 64.

1990

Reunification of Germany. The largest Art Theft in US history: 13 artworks worth over $500 million are stolen from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.

Travels to the city of Kutaisi in Georgia; exhibits in Brussels, Belgium. T'ang's health deteriorates.

1989

Tiananmen Square incident in China, triggered by the death Hu Yaobang. Berlin Wall falls.

Six months after the Tiananmen Square incident, the painting of T'ang Birth of the Dragon is exhibited at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris during the exhibition Tian An Men Je n'oublie pas.

1988

National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in West District, Taichung City opens. François Mitterrand is re-elected as President of France.

Misses the invitation to exhibit in China-Paris show at Taipei Fine Art Museum; exhibits in Switzerland; Saulgau in Germany & Pont-Aven in France.

1987

Musée d'art moderne (Saint-Étienne) opens in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Irises sell for record high prices. The Last Emperor directed by Bernardo Bertolucci premieres at the Tokyo Film Festival.

Exhibits at House of Latin America in Paris, France & Orangerie de Landecy in Genève, Switzerland.

1986

Musée d'Orsay opens in Paris. Gilbert and George win Turner Prize. Dalai Lama meets Pope John Paul II in India. Oprah Winfrey Show is first broadcast nationally in the US.

Exhibits at Galerie Nane Stern in Paris, France and in Kulturzentrum in Bottrop-Oberhausen in Germany.

1985

Charity single We Are the World is recorded for Africa. Mickey Mouse is welcomed in China. Wreck of the Titanic found.

Exhibits at Burgerzentrum, castle of Borbeck, Essen in Germany.

1984

Signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, agreement on the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. US President Ronald Reagan visits China. Prince release his album Purple Rain. Japan beats US for Olympic gold medal in baseball.

T'ang is baptized in the Catholic faith under the name François; and naturalized French. Travels to Japan with his curator friend Jean-Paul Desroches. Illustrations for The Dream of Ximei, a tale by Desroches. Exhibits at Musée des beaux arts du Château de Vitré & Musée des beaux arts de Vannes in France.

1983

Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle unveil Stravinsky Fountain near Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Mugged in a New York street. Exhibits at National Academy of Science in Washington, USA; Musée des beaux arts Ernest Rupin in Brive & Musée des beaux arts de Quimper, both in France.

1982

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial movie directed by Steven Spielberg is released. Michael Jackson releases his album Thriller.

Exhibits at Galerie Nane Stern in Paris, France; & Galerie Gisèle Linder in Basel, Switzerland.

1981

François Mitterrand becomes President of France. According to the will of Picasso, Guernica is returned to Madrid from New York. China Daily is founded. Beginning of the AIDS epidemic.

Exhibits in Augsburg in Germany; Graulhet in France; & New York, U.S.A.

1980

John Lennon is assassinated. Ronald Reagan is elected as the US President. CNN (The Cable News Network) is founded in the US.

Exhibits at Musée des Ponchettes in Nice, France.

1979

US and China establish diplomatic relations. One Child Policy is implemented in China. Sino-Vietnamese War begins. The Xing Xing ("Star Group") of Chinese avant-garde artists stage an illegal exhibition outside the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, it marks the birth of Chinese Contemporary Art.

Exhibits at Musée Savoisien, Chambéry, France; Galerie 21 in Zurich, Switzerland; Galerie Jacques Davidson in Tours, France & Galerie Daniel Abras in Brussels, Belgium.

1978

China and Japan sign peace treaty.

Exhibits at Galerie Nane Stern, Paris, France.

1977

Jimmy Carter becomes US President. The Star Wars movie is released and creates a global pop culture phenomenon.

Exhibits at Galerie du Manoir, La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland.

1976

Death of Mao Zedong. End of the Cultural Revolution in China. Tangshan earthquake in China kills over 240,000. North & South Vietnam join to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Apple computer is founded.

Exhibits at Jacques Baruch Gallery, Chicago, USA.

1975

Rembrandt's painting The Night Watch is being attacked and slashed at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Holland. Fall of Saigon, Vietnam. Microsoft is founded.

Exhibits at Galerie Nane Stern in Paris, France; Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England; & Galleria Costellazione in Genoa, Italy.

1974

Terracotta Army is discovered in China.

Exhibits at Ellingham Mill Art Society; Norfolk Museum, England; Kunstgarten, Skorby, Denmark & Galeria Tonino di Campione, Campione in Italy.

1973

US President Richard Nixon announces "Peace with honour" for Vietnam.

Collaborates with Tom Tam, for short film T'ang Boogie, first "film d'artiste" by a modern Chinese painter. Exhibits at Galerie de l'Armitière, Rouen, France.

1972

US President Richard Nixon visits China. BBC Television broadcast the art series programme Ways of Seeing. The Godfather directed by Francis Ford Coppola premieres in New York City.

Visits India and resides with his friend the Maharani of Porbandar. Meets a filmmaker Tom Tam in Goa. Exhibits at l'Abbaye de Ste Croix, Sables d'Olonne, France; Galleria d'Arte San Luca, Bologne, Italy; & Galerie Jacques Davidson in Tours, France.

1971

Construction of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris begins. The United Nations General Assembly admits the People's Republic of China. Taiwan leaves the UN.

Exhibits at Galleria del Vantaggio in Rome, Italy.

1970

First edition of Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland. The Beatles splits.

Exhibits at Roland, Browse & Delbanco Gallery in London.

1969

American astronaut Neil Armstrong walks on the moon. David Bowie release Space Oddity. The first Woodstock Festival. Massive anti Vietnam war demonstrations in the US.

Paul Mellon, the great American art collector and philanthropist shows a keen interest in the works of T'ang.

1968

Martin Luther King is assassinated. Prague Spring. Massive protests and strikes in France. Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey is released.

Paints an Homage to Gauguin - Where do we come from?. Exhibits in France, Switzerland, Spain and Italy. Adopts the diptych format which becomes "his format", no other painter in art history has systematically used - as T'ang - this format.

1967

The European Communities is created.

Meets with Balthus at Villa Medici in Rome. Guest at La Rossinière, the residence of Balthus in Switzerland.

1966

Start of the Cultural Revolution in China. English musician David Bowie releases his 1st single Can't Help Thinking About Me. Flood of the Arno in Florence, Italy, destroyed numerous artworks and books.

Most of the works he created and left in San Francisco are destroyed in a huge fire. Exhibits at Galerie Schmitt in Metz, France.

1965

US sends troops to Vietnam. American Artist Donald Judd starts his minimalistic "specific objects" creation.

Stay several months in the US, lives and paints in a friend's house overlooking the bay of San Francisco. Exhibits in the US, France, Sweden and Norway.

1964

France and China establish diplomatic relations. The Beatles become popular in the US.

Paints an Homage to Cézanne. Exhibits at Galerie Welter & Mairie de Saint Valérie en Caux in France.

1963

Martin Luther King delivers his I Have a Dream speech. US President JF Kennedy is assisnated.

Exhibits at Galerie Raymond Creuze, Paris, France; & Alaska Methodist University, Anchorage, USA.

1962

National Art Museum of China opens in Beijing. Andy Warhol exhibits his Campbell's Soup Can. The Beatles release their 1st record Love Me Do. The first James Bond movie Dr. No premieres in London.

Exhibits at Galerie La Boîte à Livres, Tours, France.

1961

Berlin Wall is built.

Exhibits at Galerie Talleyrand, Reims, France.

1960

In France artistic movement Nouveau Réalisme begins. Release of the film Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard the Pope of the New Wave.

Exhibits at Bradtke Gallery in Luxembourg, Galerie 7 in Poitiers & Galerie Saint Ferdinand Pimlico in Paris, France.

1959

The Sound of Music opens on broadway. The Cuban Revolution. Dalai Lama flees to India. Liu Shaoqi becomes the President of the People's Republic of China.

Exhibits at Musée de Montréal in Canada; Musée des Oudaias de Rabat and School of Fine Arts in Casablanca, Morocco. Settles in a modest flat near Montparnasse in 43 Rue Liancourt in Paris.

1958

Chinese leader Mao Zedong launches the "Great Leap Forward" movement in China. NASA is founded.

T'ang announces to his family his decision to be a painter. Exhibits in Morocco.

1957

The Lady of the Camellias premieres in Beijing, the first western opera to be presented in China.

1956

Shanghai Art Museum opens.

Exhibits at Galerie Belvédère in Hergiswill am See, Lucerne, Switzerland.

1955

American artist Jasper Johns paints Flag. Movie The Seven Year Itch premières in New York.

Exhibits at Galerie Voyelles in Paris, France.

1954

French painter Henri Matisse & sculptor René Iché pass away.

T'ang joins the Ancient Drama Group of Sorbonne University, performs in Freiburg, Germany as the corypheus in The Persians of Aeschylus.

1953

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey. Francis Bacon paints Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X.

1952

Musical Singing in the Rain is released.

1951

Korean War. Picasso paints Massacre in Korea.

1950

Russian painter Vladimir Tretchikoff paints Chinese Girl, popularly known as "The Green Lady".

1949

Mao Zedong proclaims the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany.

T'ang obtains a French civilization diploma.

1948

Gandhi is assassinated.

T'ang arrives in Paris, lives on Rue des St Pères; starts travelling and following drawing lessons at l'Académie de la Grande Chaumière.

1947

French fashion designer Christian Dior introduces the "New Look" in women's fashion in Paris. American business magnate and philanthropist John D Rockefeller Jr donates NYC East River site to the United Nations.

1946

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gives his "Iron Curtain" speech, beginning of Cold War.

T'ang adopts the pen name Hai-Wen, which he writes Haywen.

1945

Atomic Bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagazaki, Japan. End of the 2nd World War. United Nations is founded.

1944

Casablanca wins the 16th Academy Awards. Gandhi freed from prison.

1943

Continuation of the 1942 famine in China.

1942

Mao Zedong gives his speech at the Yan'an Forum on literature and art. American painter Edward Hopper paints Nighthawks.

1941

Pacific War begins. Chinese Civil War resumes. National Gallery of Art opens in Washington D.C.

1940

Spanish artist Salvador Dalí paints The Face of War.

1939

World War 2 begins. Chinese painter Xu Bei-Hong paints Put Down Your Whip.

1938

The Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht) in Germany.

1937

Japan invades China, 2nd Sino-Japanese War begins. The Golden Gate Bridge is completed in San Francisco. Picasso paints Guernica.

T'ang moves to Saigon, Vietnam with his family due to the war in China.

1936

English comic actor Charles Chaplin directs film Modern Time. Spanish Civil War begins.

1935

The Eastman Kodak Company introduces the first colour film "Kodachrome".

1934

Mao Zedong leads the "Long March".

1933

Formation of the "Chinese Students Art Association" in Paris, France.

1932

Establishment of Manchukuo, a puppet state of Imperial Japan, in the North of China.

1931

Japan invades China, 1st Sino-Japanese War begins. Empire State Building completed.

1930

Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong writes A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire. The comic strip Mickey Mouse first appears.

1929

Stock market crashes, beginning of the Great Depression. Museum of Modern Arts (MOMA) opens in New York City, exhibits the works of Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat and van Gogh.

1928

Chinese educator Cai Yuanpei founded the National Academy of Arts in Hangzhou, painter Lin Feng Mien is appointed as the president. Chiang Kai-Shek becomes Director of the State Council of China.

1927

First Phase of Chinese Civil War begins (1927 - 1937). Golden age of Parisian influence on Chinese art (1927-1937).

T'ang is born in Amoy (Xiamen), Fujian Province, China

1926

French painter Claude Monet dies. Spanish Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí dies without having finished the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Film maker Fritz Lang directs Metropolis.

1925

The 1st issue of New Yorker magazine, The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, and Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler are published.

1924

French writer André Breton publishes the first Surrealist Manifesto.

1923

French painter Henri Matisse paints Odalisque with Raised Arms.

1922

BBC is founded, begins radio broadcast.

1921

Communist Party of China is established.

1920

Chinese female writer Eileen Chang is born in Shanghai.

1919

Treaty of Versailles is signed in France, Germany renounces, in favour of Japan, all its rights, titles and privileges in China; preparing the conditions for the outbreak of the Second War World. Rodin Museum opens in Paris.

1918

End of First World War.

1917

Satie / Massine / Picasso's ballet Parade premieres in Paris. Marcel Duchamp creates the Fountain. Beginning of Dadaism. French sculptor Auguste Rodin dies.

1916

Modigliani paints A Reclining Nude.

1915

Japan claims economic control of China.

1914

First World War begins. French painter Claude Monet starts painting the water lilies series.

1913

New York Armory Show, the first large exhibition of modern art in America, introduces Picasso, Marcel Duchamp and Henri Matisse to the US. Russian composer Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is premiered in Paris, France.

1912

End of Qing dynasty in China. The first Republic of China is established by Dr. Sun Yat-Sen.