Chinese sumi-e calligraphy on hand-made paper by French artist Jacques Decaux (1918-2003) titled "White Bird and Clouds do Fly Together" dated 1984. Decaux was a resident of Taiwan and a member of the Taipei Art Guild. Framed with 100% archival materials and UV Plexiglas in a black lacquer frame. Framed size: 34" high x 57 1/2" wide x 2" deep (painting: 48” x 24”). Purchased in Taiwan in 1987 from the Taipei Art Guild. Jacques Decaux came to art through calligraphy, the route of the traditional Chinese scholar. He became fascinated with the written Chinese characters that are a much shape and form as alphabet. In creating a body of abstract art, Decaux uses the forms of calligraphy, often in combination with his hand-made paper, to create works that are both amusing and intellectually stimulating. With his wry sense of humor, one might see a composition with the Chinese character for “danger” perched at the edge of a cliff; three females beside the character for “pandemonium;” or “prisoner” next to a stick figure of a man inside a circle. In his series “Neolithic Cave Paintings,” Decaux used modified forms of the earliest styles of “zhuan shu” (seal script) calligraphy to create pictographic stories, each accompanied by its own ingenious tale. A student of Buddhism and Daoism, Decaux’s work was influenced by the orderly, rhythmic belief system of Daoism – a philosophy that harmonizes man’s movements with the cosmos and teaches man to sit back, relax, and flow with the elements. Born in Normandy in 1918, Decaux became a visiting professor at Taiwan’s Chinese Cultural University in 1976 and was a longstanding member of the Taipei Art Guild. He passed away at the age of 85 in Keelung, Taiwan.