There is a fascinating movement of abstraction that developed in North Asia in the last quarter of the 20th century.

This movement which appeared in China shortly after the death of MaoZedong around 1978, in parallel with the Gutai（具体） and the Mono-Ha (もの派) movements in Japan and the Dansaekhwa (단색화, Korean Monochrome minimalism) in Korea, is imbued with Asian culture and spirituality.

It tells a story distinct from the two waves of Western abstraction: the first one at the beginning of that century in various cities in Europe (Moscow, Paris, Munich) starting in 1911 with Kandinsky, Kupka, Delaunay, and later Malevitch and Mondrian; and the second wave after world war II which appeared at the same time circa 1950 in New York with Abstract Expressionism (Pollock, de Kooning, Kline, Rothko) and in Paris with Lyrical Abstraction (Soulages, Poliakof, Hartung, Riopelle, Da Silva, Zao Wu Ki and Chu Teh Chun).

This movement of abstraction that developed in North Asia (China, Japan, Korea) in its last 25 years can possibly constitute a third wave of abstraction for the 20th century, and one with a distinct Asian specificity.

Participating artists: Ding Yi, Huang Rui, Cai Jin, Li Shan, Liu Ming, Wang Peng, Yu Youhan, Zhang Wei, Zhang Zhenyu, Yamada Masaaki, Ha Chong-Hyun, Yun Hyong-keun, Lee Ufan