The Dancing Notes exhibition also displays her old recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach's compositions. She says her father, Pang Xunqin, used to buy a lot of records.

"At times, our father asked my brother and me to sit down and do nothing but listen to Bach's music," she recalls. "Our mother wondered if we understood. But our father said that, if we kept listening, we would."

Pang Tao says abstract art and music are alike because the lines and spaces are like the "notes and dots that correspond". Abstract art was introduced to China from the West, and Pang says what she produces are "post-abstract" works. Rather than simply copying a Western model, she creates to enliven her home culture.

Contact the writer at linqi@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go

11 am-6 pm, Wednesdays through Fridays; 10 am-6 pm, Saturdays and Sundays, through Nov 11. 50 Xingshikou Road, Haidian district. Beijing. 010-6273-0230.