Professor Reiner Kallhardt (center on the stage) and some prominent Chinese artists discuss their past experience as well as their friendship at German ambassador's residence in Beijing on April 10 (XU BEI)

The opening ceremony of German artist Reiner Kallhardt's art exhibition was held at the German ambassador's residence in Beijing on April 10. The whole exhibition will last until the end of June 2014.

Michael Clauss, German Ambassador to China, said in his short speech at the opening ceremony that, in his talk with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during his recent state visit to Germany, Chinese President Xi Jinping had made mention of the fact that even though two countries have already developed quite good political and economic ties, cultural communication between China and Germany remains to be further pushed forward. Undoubtedly, art has a big role to play in promoting mutual understanding and trust between the two peoples.

Famous for his Constructivist art, the 81-year-old Professor Reiner Kallhardt used to be the head of the Munich Art Association and the principal of the Art College of Kassel before his retirement. For the past few decades, he has devoted himself to the research and practice of Constructivist art. His paintings rely on Concrete Art series permutations. Many of his paintings are based on variations of the same geometric patterns, while colors are used in such a way that creates movement and multi-dimensionality.

Kallhardt has long been interested in Chinese culture and art, as shown in many of his pieces, which have assimilated such influences as the Chinese ancient classic The Book of Changes and the concept of yin and yang. His first tour in China happened in February 1989, when he personally viewed in southwest China's Sichuan Province the sculptures he had been researching since the 1970s--The Rent Courtyard Collection.

Later, he began to actively help to promote the student and teacher exchange programs between Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and the Art College of Kassel. In the past three decades, he has invited and provided assistance to more than 100 talented Chinese artists to study in Germany, mentored more than 30 Chinese pupils. He is also working hard to promote academic exchange between the two countries. With regard to his mentoring of aspiring Chinese artists, auspiciously, the famous Chinese contemporary artist Zhou Chunya was his first Chinese pupil.

At the opening ceremony, Zhou looked back to his exchanges and friendship with his tutor when was studying art in Germany during the 1980s. Zhou said he was lucky that he had decided to come back to China after finishing his study in Germany, and thus he was able to make a small contribution to the development of China's contemporary art scene. "Now I miss and love Germany more than ever before. The experience in Germany has deeply affected me and even changed many of my concepts of art," Zhou said. 

In November 2013, coordinated by Zhou, all of Professor Kallhardt's Chinese pupils jointly held the professor's first personal exhibition in China at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, with more than 70 masterpieces on display for Chinese audiences.

Thanks to this event, the moving story between a German professor and his Chinese pupils has begun to spread around the country. Knowing this, Michael Clauss, who was newly appointed as German Ambassador to China in 2013, decided to hold another personal art exhibition in his embassy residence, an ambition realized in April 2014.