Ma Desheng (b. 1952) Ma Desheng is one of the most captivating artists from China. The gallery presents a series of his iconic stone paintings. Guimet museum curator, Jean-Paul Desroches has written, “Since 2002, great stones with polished contours spring up from the rough backgrounds of violent contrasts, structured like the works of Brancusi, volcanic like those of Matisse, but as existential as Morandi’s still lifes. He stacks up the stones to form his figures abolishing the boundaries between sculpture and painting. His stone beings are both fragile and robust, solidly planted, yet their balance is fleeting. Not in the least insensitive, they are able to express the most diverse feelings. The center of each stone being slumbers a volcano of tar and snow, a magma where uncontrolled energies confront each other.” From this, we can sense the Taoist philosophy on which all the basis of Ma Desheng's thought and inspirational influence is based. He is collected by the M+, the Centre Pompidou, and the British Museum.