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Lot Essay
"The idea of throwing colour on a large white porous stone, like on China paper, pleased me (K) I have executed eight lithographs in three colours, that is to say three runs. As with Indian ink, I used a lot of water, which is not all to be recommended." Zao Wou-Ki
Revisiting Water/Ink
Zao Wou-ki came to France for the first time in 1948 to focus on learning the French language and to visit museums to see Western masterpieces. By 1949, he had entirely returned to his creative endeavours. Since the artist intended to completely immerse himself in learning Western art, he purposely detached himself from Chinese ink painting. Right before he began painting in oil again, he serendipitously visited Edmond Desjobert's lithography studio. There, Zao Wou-ki would pioneer the technique of using large volumes of water to dilute the black lithographic ink. This resulted in large areas of white spaces with effects akin to the six tones of wet, dry, thick, thin, black, and white in traditional Chinese ink painting - it has the contrast of both morphing variegation of ink and white spaces. This revolutionary lithographic effect was commended most highly by the venerated lithographer Edmond Desjobert. Later in his career when Zao Wou-Ki opted to use colours, he used only three in the production of his prints.
This lithography production experience sparked Zao Wou-Ki's interest in diluting aqueous paint - he was especially fascinated by its translucency and unmodulated colour effects. However, his research in aqueous paint had excluded Chinese ink intentionally in order to free himself from the burden of this practiced craft. Watercolour and aqueous paint had naturally become a brand new path of discovery for him. As stated by Jos? Fréches, '[w]atercolours provided him with a good way into his subject matter. Easier to use than oils, they allowed better flat colours and transparencies, knowing that one of the objects Wou-Ki was going to set himself was precisely to obtain with oils (as he did at the end of the seventies) the same effects of flat colour and transparency that he could get with the lightness of colours diluted in water, as happens with the charcoal dust used to prepare Indian ink. (Fréches Jos?, ed. Zao Wou-Ki, Works, writing, interviews, Ediciones Polígrafa, Spain, 2007, p. 32).
Despite Zao Wou-Ki's determination to break free from Chinese ink and focus on Western painting, his encounter with aqueous paint was not entirely coincidental: his subconscious love for the aesthetics of aqueous paint and how minimalist colours can highlight hues could have stemmed from the cultivation of his native culture. It fundamentally influenced his printmaking, watercolour, and painting output.
Lots 379 to 383 are examples of Zao Wou-Ki early lithograph works.
Paysage à l'homme les mains levées (Landscape with man with his arms raised) (1951) (Lot 379) revives the multitude of hues that were described as the five distinct tones in Chinese ink painting. Another edition in a different dimension was exhibited in 1951 at La Hune and Pierre Gallery in Paris.
Paysage ? la mer (Seaside landscape) (1949), Bord de mer (Coast) (1951)(Lot 382), and L'escalier (The Stairs) (1951)(Lot 381) reveal Zao Wou-Ki's progressively maturing mastery on linear representation - he was transforming all things into linear symbols. His inclination towards symbolic representation was already taking shape in 1949. It was further solidified when he saw Paul Klee's paintings during his travels to Switzerland in 1950. This experience refined the way in which he looked at nature and established a poetic space through composition. In order to enhance the fluidity of lines and heighten the degree of details in Les petits cerfs(The Small Dear) (Lot 380), he adopted the drypoint technique of using a sharp needle to engrave fine lines and textures onto copperplate. Since the pressure exerted from the printing press can easily damage these extraordinarily delicate lines, drypoint was only produced in very limited editions.
Zao Wou-Ki simultaneously experimented with different paper medium such as Japanese rice paper and Chinese Xuan paper in an attempt to invent new printmaking representations through the varied absorbencies of different papers and inks. Jardin la nuit (Garden at Night) (Lot 383) was printed on Japanese rice paper in a limited edition of three. The relatively stronger absorbency of Japanese rice paper intensified the brightness and saturation of the colours. This experimental treatment successfully achieved a permeating effect of making the Persian blue and emerald green bloom.
Revisiting Water/Ink
Zao Wou-ki came to France for the first time in 1948 to focus on learning the French language and to visit museums to see Western masterpieces. By 1949, he had entirely returned to his creative endeavours. Since the artist intended to completely immerse himself in learning Western art, he purposely detached himself from Chinese ink painting. Right before he began painting in oil again, he serendipitously visited Edmond Desjobert's lithography studio. There, Zao Wou-ki would pioneer the technique of using large volumes of water to dilute the black lithographic ink. This resulted in large areas of white spaces with effects akin to the six tones of wet, dry, thick, thin, black, and white in traditional Chinese ink painting - it has the contrast of both morphing variegation of ink and white spaces. This revolutionary lithographic effect was commended most highly by the venerated lithographer Edmond Desjobert. Later in his career when Zao Wou-Ki opted to use colours, he used only three in the production of his prints.
This lithography production experience sparked Zao Wou-Ki's interest in diluting aqueous paint - he was especially fascinated by its translucency and unmodulated colour effects. However, his research in aqueous paint had excluded Chinese ink intentionally in order to free himself from the burden of this practiced craft. Watercolour and aqueous paint had naturally become a brand new path of discovery for him. As stated by Jos? Fréches, '[w]atercolours provided him with a good way into his subject matter. Easier to use than oils, they allowed better flat colours and transparencies, knowing that one of the objects Wou-Ki was going to set himself was precisely to obtain with oils (as he did at the end of the seventies) the same effects of flat colour and transparency that he could get with the lightness of colours diluted in water, as happens with the charcoal dust used to prepare Indian ink. (Fréches Jos?, ed. Zao Wou-Ki, Works, writing, interviews, Ediciones Polígrafa, Spain, 2007, p. 32).
Despite Zao Wou-Ki's determination to break free from Chinese ink and focus on Western painting, his encounter with aqueous paint was not entirely coincidental: his subconscious love for the aesthetics of aqueous paint and how minimalist colours can highlight hues could have stemmed from the cultivation of his native culture. It fundamentally influenced his printmaking, watercolour, and painting output.
Lots 379 to 383 are examples of Zao Wou-Ki early lithograph works.
Paysage à l'homme les mains levées (Landscape with man with his arms raised) (1951) (Lot 379) revives the multitude of hues that were described as the five distinct tones in Chinese ink painting. Another edition in a different dimension was exhibited in 1951 at La Hune and Pierre Gallery in Paris.
Paysage ? la mer (Seaside landscape) (1949), Bord de mer (Coast) (1951)(Lot 382), and L'escalier (The Stairs) (1951)(Lot 381) reveal Zao Wou-Ki's progressively maturing mastery on linear representation - he was transforming all things into linear symbols. His inclination towards symbolic representation was already taking shape in 1949. It was further solidified when he saw Paul Klee's paintings during his travels to Switzerland in 1950. This experience refined the way in which he looked at nature and established a poetic space through composition. In order to enhance the fluidity of lines and heighten the degree of details in Les petits cerfs(The Small Dear) (Lot 380), he adopted the drypoint technique of using a sharp needle to engrave fine lines and textures onto copperplate. Since the pressure exerted from the printing press can easily damage these extraordinarily delicate lines, drypoint was only produced in very limited editions.
Zao Wou-Ki simultaneously experimented with different paper medium such as Japanese rice paper and Chinese Xuan paper in an attempt to invent new printmaking representations through the varied absorbencies of different papers and inks. Jardin la nuit (Garden at Night) (Lot 383) was printed on Japanese rice paper in a limited edition of three. The relatively stronger absorbency of Japanese rice paper intensified the brightness and saturation of the colours. This experimental treatment successfully achieved a permeating effect of making the Persian blue and emerald green bloom.