Tan Tong’s works comprise an infusion of Chinese philosophy, culture and history with I-Ching hexagrams and nine-square grid of Chinese magic squares (also known as the Golden Section), with elements of Taoist mysticism and Tantric Buddhist space (cosmology). In Winter Symphony, two pairs of ballet dancers move with grace, and the scene is imbued with a sense of dynamic balance and energy. One of France’s most stunning landscapes, Mont-Saint-Michel, is depicted at the top of the composition. The work shows fusion and influence from the East and the West. Tan Tong, artist-printmaker-art thinker, is one of Malaysia’s most flamboyant French-trained artists with a struggle to boot. He was doubly given major exhibitions by Soka Gakkai Malaysia (SGM), his Retrospective called Homage To Tan Tong: His Life And Times (2011-2012) and Tan Tong: Homage to Picasso (2006). Tan Tong was given a French Government scholarship to study at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts (ENSBA) in Paris (1964-1969), and he followed up with a double diploma in Painting and Drawing in 1974-1975, which is marked by his winning the Fondation Rocheron Award at ENSBA. He also studied French literature at the University of Bordeaux. In 1991, Tan Tong won a Consolation Prize for Painting at the National Art Gallery’s Salon Malaysia. He had 17 solos since his first at the Foyer des Artistes Galerie, Montparnasse Paris in 1967. His other overseas solos were in Singapore, at the Meyer Gallery in 1970 and the Notices Gallery in 1993. His first local solo was at the Samat Art Gallery in 1970. He taught at the Malaysian Institute of Art for 26 years, retiring as Head of the Department of Art and Design in 2002.