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This important collection of early etchings and lithographs by Zao Wou-Ki (lots 124-138) spans the years 1949-1957, a period in which the artist developed his own distinct synthesis of European Modernism and traditional Chinese painting. Zao Wou-Ki received his formal training at the School of Fine Arts in Hangzou, where he was exposed to both Eastern and Western academic traditions. Frustrated by the restrictive formalism of Chinese painting, he departed for Paris in 1948 and immersed himself in the art of the European avant-garde. It was also at this time that he made his first forays into printmaking, an art form which he devoted himself to, in the great tradition of French peintre-graveurs, throughout his career. In 1949 he made his first lithographs at the workshop of Edmond Desjobert and later described his first attempts in the medium: The idea of throwing colour on a large white porous stone, like on China paper, pleased me As with Indian ink, I used a lot of water, which is not at all to be recommended. Edmond Desjobert, a remarkably skilful lithographer, criticized me for it and told me the outcome would be poor, because one could not mix so much water with the lithographic ink. Even so I tried, and while the proofs were being printed he became enthusiastic. (Zao Wou-Ki & Francoise Marquet, Autoportrait, 1993, quoted in: Zao Wou-Ki, The Graphic Work - A Catalogue Raisonné 1937-1995, Heede & Moestrup, Skørping, Denmark, 1995, p. 8). Despite his youthful rejection of his own heritage, the early lithographs, such as the exquisite Paysage au croissant de lune (lot 125) and his delightful Paris Poems (lot 130), reflect a distinctive sensibility, a delicacy of line and lyricism immediately reminiscent of Chinese calligraphy and scroll paintings. This tension between oriental and occidental influences was resolved in the early 1950's when Zao Wou-Ki encountered the art of Paul Klee. How could I be ignorant of this painter whose knowledge and love of Chinese painting is so obvious? [...] From these small signs, drawn on a ground with a multitude of spaces, a dazzling world emerges. So, Occidental painting, of which I had a pure example before me, made me see something that I already knew so well and that had had a restrictive influence on me (Zao Wou-Ki & Françoise Marquet, Autoportrait, 1993, quoted in: Zao Wou-Ki, The Graphic Work - A Catalogue Raisonné 1937-1995, p. 9). As Dora Vallier concludes, 'Klee had assured Zao Wou-Ki's acceptance of his Chinese soul'. Zao Wou-Ki's etchings from the early 1950's, such as the very rare Femme dans la fort (lot 124) and Flore et faune (lot 127) reflect Klee's influence in their shift towards a more schematic visual vocabulary, inspired by pictograms and hieroglyphs, but also reminiscent of microscopic photography and his own knowledge of Chinese calligraphy. These symbolic landscapes, often depicted with a sun or moon and inhabited by birds and beasts, boats and fishes, a human couple or a solitary figure, are evocative of a prelapsarian world in which humanity is intimately integrated with the natural world. The trajectory evident in these works towards a simplification of experience to its lyrical essence led Zao Wou-Ki to gradually abandon figuration altogether. The evocative title of the etching and aquatint Vent et poussière (Wind and Dust) (lot 137) from 1957, the last lot of this collection, is the only clue to interpreting the print and, by 1958, Zao Wou-Ki stopped giving titles to his works altogether. Vallier describes Zao Wou-Ki's embracing of abstraction as 'a matter of re-finding his China by breaking the routine of an inveterate attitude, while retaining the suppleness and vigilance of the hand From now on, only one desire governs the works of Zao Wou-Ki: to display the sign by raising it to a universal level'. In the words of Zao Wou-ki: How to represent the wind? How to paint the emptiness? And the light, it's brightness, it's purity? I did not want to reproduce but to juxtapose forms, to assemble them in order to find in them the whispering wind over still water (quoted in: Dora Vallier, The whispering wind over still water, in: Zao Wou-Ki, The Graphic Work - A Catalogue Raisonné 1937-1995, p. 10).

Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013)

Femme dans la forêt (Jacometti 21; Agerup 34)

Details

Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013)
Femme dans la forêt (Jacometti 21; Agerup 34)
etching in brown and black, 1950, on wove paper, a fine impression of this rare print, signed in pencil, numbered 12/14 (there were also a few artist's proofs), printed by G. Leblanc, Paris, the full sheet, a deckle edge below, pale mount staining, minor adhesive staining at the sheet edges above and below, generally in good condition, framed
P. 169 x 238 mm., S. 251 x 323 mm.

Provenance

With Hick Street Gallery, New York (according to a label on the mount verso).

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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