Name： Francois BossiereChinese Name： Fang SuoNationality： FrenchOccupation： Painter， TeacherTime in China： 1 yearsHis lifestyle is almost exactly that of anauthentic Chinese person： he eats Chinese food，drinks Chinese tea， has Chinese friends， discussesChinese historical figures and practices Taiji.
He takes pleasure in Chinese music and painting.
He is an artist who understands western artthoroughly， but his works — both his free-handbrushwork and the parts carefully left blank— are made in China. This artist is the Frenchpainter Francois Bossiere.
180 “Amphibious Human Among all the Westerners who are good at Chinese painting， oneartist is particularly well known to the Chinese people： Giuseppe Gastiglione，who lived in China for 52 years， from the reign of EmperorKangxi to Qianlong （1662 -1736 ） of the Qing Dynasty （1644 -1911 ）。 Hewas a favored minister of the Chinese Emperor， and the royal painter.
He brought Western theories of art into China and practiced Chinesepainting himself. However， Gastigloine’s painting is still painted withWestern skills. He respected reality， and his eyes were like cameralenses. His thoughts and methods never strayed from the style of copyingreality mechanically.
Starting with a French artist named Francois Bossiere， the Orientalsensibility began to sneak into the Western art world. As if a fairyfrom the East ere holding this Western painter’s hand while he worked，his free-hand brushworks and blank spaces are one hundred percent“made in China”。
coming out of the Xizhimen subway station and walking about200 meters to the south， there is a Granville Italian style café。 Frenchpainter Francois stood there. He was wearing a checked shirt， was talland thin with blue eyes and light-colored hair. He looked like a basketballplayer. The way he shakes hands with people shows that he has been part of the Oriental culture for a long time， and you can feel thathe must deeply understand the theories of Chinese painting — whereyour thought reaches， your brush follows.
Francois’s house in Beijing is not big， but is quite artistic. On hisshelves is his vast collection of various Chinese books， from ChronologicalCategory of Ba Da Shan Ren to My Name Is Red. Around thehouse are his paintings， mostly Chinese-style ink paintings.
Seated for a while， Francois stood up with a cigarette betweenhis fingers and turned up the speakers. Suddenly the entire house wasfilled with the sound of guqin （seven-stringed plucked instrument） music.
It feels like the music was composed for the paintings. He not onlylikes the guqin， but also the pipa （a plucked string instrument with afretted fingerboard）， another traditional Chinese instrument. When hewas teaching in Xi’an， one of his students played for him. The momentshe started， he immediately fell in love with the music and thought itresembles Spanish Flamenco music very much. Although it is not thatrefined， it is so pure that it can move anyone.
182 Francois was born in Paris in 1956. He loved painting when hewas just a small boy. His mother was from a small town in southernFrance and the mountains there were big and bleak. People could easilyfind shell fossils in the mountains. His mother who knew so muchabout prehistoric culture reminded him： Don’t copy others’ works. Youshould not copy. She wanted him to express his own style. As a Westernerwho behaves as his spirit moves him， he knew the importance ofbeing outside the normal world when he was just a small boy.
Xizhimen is one of Beijing’s prosperous spots. It is definitely notan easy thing to maintain a calm mood while painting in such a noisyplace. But from Francois’s works， you can tell that he has alreadygrasped the ability to keep his mind in nature while in the midst of thecrowd.
In July 2007， his series of works Ancient Jars Major Suites wereexhibited in Beijing. Many of his new works were shown. His excellentChinese ink paintings attracted the attention of many Chinese seniorpainters and critics.
It is said that Eastern culture and Western culture are like two mountain peaks standing and facing each other. When the two communicate，they can do so only in the valley at the feet of the mountains.
But when people see Francois’s Chinese paintings and the ideal sceneryoutlined there， it makes them think that this saying might be worthreconsidering. From Francois’s paintings， Chinese authorities of artconcluded that Westerners not only understand Chinese spirit， but arealso able to draw upon its soul.
Before I met Francois， I heard that he is an artist who deeply understandsWestern art. When he was young， he saw almost no Chineseartworks. The works that left profound marks in his memory and alsoaffected his future painting were the ones he saw before he was 3years old. This means that the art formality that Francois follows isgenerally Western.
The content of our talks varied from the East to the West and thenfrom the West to the East. Francois was talking back and forth， showingno difficulties. Looking at the mature Chinese style paintings， Icouldn’t help asking myself， how could a European person who grewup in Western culture became such an amphibious artist who knowsthe Eastern image so well？ The answer does not seem to be complicated.
As Francois said， no matter what the tradition is， the ultimate goalthat art pursues is always the same.
