With the theme of "Peace, Dialogue and Exchange", the two-week exhibition will display 50 works by Xu, who said that the exhibition is also to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Sino-Switzerland diplomatic relationship.

Xu skillfully blends traditional Chinese culture and modern western painting arts and has gained a reputation for this unique artistic style.

Featuring Chinese people's love for nature and peace, his works are warmly welcomed at home and abroad, said Sun Xiaohong, an official from the Ministry of Culture.

"We can see not only the artist's spirit of innovation from his works, but also the great changes in China over the past twenty years of opening-up and reform," Sun said.

In recent years, Xu has been carrying on a program entitled "Sunlight and the Dream of Harmony", which interprets the Chinese philosophical idea that "man is an integral part of nature" in a new way. Art circles regard his creation as playing a "bridge-role" in cultural exchange between the East and West.

After the show in Switzerland, Xu will display his paintings at United Nations headquarters in New York.

(Xinhua 04/04/2001)