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Lot Essay
With the end of the Second World War, Paris' trendsetting art scene quickly revived and resumed attracting young artists from around the globe. Young Americans, Soviets, Portuguese and Chinese were among those who arrived to contribute their talents to the artistic melting pot. Young artists began moving away from geometric abstraction as they discovered 'Abstraction Lyrique' and later 'Art Informel' as ways to express sentiments free from the restrictions of form. This revolutionary trend was a key driving force for Zao Wou-Ki.
Zao arrived in Paris in 1948. Initially he dedicated most of his time to the study of relationships within the pictorial space, which resulted in a breakthrough in his artistic style in 1949. In May of that year Zao held his first solo exhibition in Paris, showing works whose subjects included mountain villages, forests, seashores, and still lifes. Village (Lot 364) is a representative work from this period. In it he takes the first steps toward abstraction and simplification of the various scenic objects, which he expresses through a profusion of pure lines and blocks of color. Against a background of brown and black, lines in white or pale colours outline the shapes of tree trunks and branches. Zao also customarily introduced human figures into his landscapes, which here appear in the upper left, while ducks in the upper and lower portions of the canvas give the painting an extra flavour of life. Zao continued along this path of visual simplification, which in the 1950s would lead to his semi-abstract works based primarily on linear motifs.
A Space Connecting with Viewers
French-Chinese artist Zao Wou-Ki was active for over sixty years in the international art scene. His abstract works successfully turned blank canvases into richly meaningful spaces – spaces in which we can remember, or imagine, or linger for a time. These ultimately became a kind of individual space capable of connecting with the lives of viewers.
16.02.64 (Lot 365) dates from 1964, a time when Zao Wou-ki had already lived in France for 20 years and was well-versed in the concepts and techniques of Western art. But long exploration of his own cultural roots also led, in 16.02.64, to a harmonious and successful melding of Eastern and Western elements.
In Zao's work from the '60s, spatial presentation takes precedence even over color. Zao inherited the legacy of the Chinese painting masters who came before, borrowing the 'scattered' or multiple-point perspective from traditional Chinese painting. In order to depict grand vistas in their paintings, Chinese landscape painters divided the vertical axes of their works into four sections, allowing the tableau to accommodate several focal points (Fig. 1). To present three-dimensional objects, the Western fixed position perspective uses one point of focus in the tableau to concentrate the scope of landscape. A landscape painting by Lin Fengmian, who was Zao's teacher in Hangzhou, abandons the hanging scroll format in favor of a square format, which is divided into horizontal bands that form the four sections of composition, which include the sky, the faraway mountains, the gentle slopes, and the rivers.
16.02.64 brings together the close-up, the foreground, the middle and the faraway into the same pictorial plane. Alternating ruddy brown and beige white horizontal masses divide the canvas into four parts. The interplay of solid lines and empty space, as in calligraphy, creates great power, and the combination of motion and stillness in the painting produces its sense of convergence, pauses, and flow. Zao once said, 'In Chinese painting, solid forms and empty spaces have a rhythm, constantly in motion as each pushes at the other, giving the pictorial space a wonderful balance between lightness and weight. If you say my painting is different from most Western painters, it probably has to do with my concepts of handling space.'
Visiting the Yellow Mountains in the 1980s
A year and a half before the completion of 28.11.84 (Lot 366), Zao Wou-ki returned to his homeland. In November of 1982 he first traveled to Beijing, taking part in the opening ceremony for the Fragrant Hill Hotel. He then visited Taiwan, and in the fall of 1983, at the invitation of the Chinese Ministry of Culture, he returned to hold several exhibitions. The National Art Museum of China and his alma mater, the China Academy of Art (previously known as the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts) both exhibited his work. During his free time he toured the Yellow Mountains, as the kind of scenic vistas they offer, unique to China, always provided inspiration for his painting. Zao's 28.11.84, dating from 1984, does indeed evoke the clouds and mists of the Yellow Mountains. Their soaring peaks rise up into the clouds, dense rolling cloud banks that float and drift with the wind like a vast sea that stretches sometimes as far as the eye can see, in a majestic and otherworldly scene. On his blank canvas Zao Wou-ki creates a richly meaningful space – a space in which we can remember, or imagine, or linger for a time, a place which ultimately becomes an individual space capable of connecting with the lives of viewers.
Zao Wou-ki's 28.11.84 marks the completion of a stylistic transition: from the 1960s - when bold lines and surging, agitated blocks of color dominated his canvases - to the 1980s when his use of color-wash effects from Chinese ink painting liberated the expressive qualities of color itself.
A Collision of Hues, the Birth of Color
28.11.84 is nothing if not a field of colors being born—new colors created from collisions of others. Zao's colors in the '80s became lighter, more graceful, and gentler. In ink painting, new colors are coincidentally created by the mixing of colors the moment colored ink contacts the absorbent, unsized Xuan paper. Zao's focus, however, was not just on new colors but on blending them together, making natural transitions between them of utmost importance. He deliberately increased the proportion of solvent when mixing pigments, and when applying them, he tried to spread them as evenly as possible to leave no brush marks, creating continuous colors that flowed, permeated, and spread. Like drops of color falling into clear water, they mix gradually to form new hues. The pastel violet at the lower right of 28.11.84, along with the left blue-violet, silver-blue, and pastel blue, creates distinct layers. In the lower right, light green and orangeyellow flow across the canvas. Zao further adds touches of black and white, strongly opposing colors, with Chinese ink painting applications, further enhancing spatial depth.
Zao arrived in Paris in 1948. Initially he dedicated most of his time to the study of relationships within the pictorial space, which resulted in a breakthrough in his artistic style in 1949. In May of that year Zao held his first solo exhibition in Paris, showing works whose subjects included mountain villages, forests, seashores, and still lifes. Village (Lot 364) is a representative work from this period. In it he takes the first steps toward abstraction and simplification of the various scenic objects, which he expresses through a profusion of pure lines and blocks of color. Against a background of brown and black, lines in white or pale colours outline the shapes of tree trunks and branches. Zao also customarily introduced human figures into his landscapes, which here appear in the upper left, while ducks in the upper and lower portions of the canvas give the painting an extra flavour of life. Zao continued along this path of visual simplification, which in the 1950s would lead to his semi-abstract works based primarily on linear motifs.
A Space Connecting with Viewers
French-Chinese artist Zao Wou-Ki was active for over sixty years in the international art scene. His abstract works successfully turned blank canvases into richly meaningful spaces – spaces in which we can remember, or imagine, or linger for a time. These ultimately became a kind of individual space capable of connecting with the lives of viewers.
16.02.64 (Lot 365) dates from 1964, a time when Zao Wou-ki had already lived in France for 20 years and was well-versed in the concepts and techniques of Western art. But long exploration of his own cultural roots also led, in 16.02.64, to a harmonious and successful melding of Eastern and Western elements.
In Zao's work from the '60s, spatial presentation takes precedence even over color. Zao inherited the legacy of the Chinese painting masters who came before, borrowing the 'scattered' or multiple-point perspective from traditional Chinese painting. In order to depict grand vistas in their paintings, Chinese landscape painters divided the vertical axes of their works into four sections, allowing the tableau to accommodate several focal points (Fig. 1). To present three-dimensional objects, the Western fixed position perspective uses one point of focus in the tableau to concentrate the scope of landscape. A landscape painting by Lin Fengmian, who was Zao's teacher in Hangzhou, abandons the hanging scroll format in favor of a square format, which is divided into horizontal bands that form the four sections of composition, which include the sky, the faraway mountains, the gentle slopes, and the rivers.
16.02.64 brings together the close-up, the foreground, the middle and the faraway into the same pictorial plane. Alternating ruddy brown and beige white horizontal masses divide the canvas into four parts. The interplay of solid lines and empty space, as in calligraphy, creates great power, and the combination of motion and stillness in the painting produces its sense of convergence, pauses, and flow. Zao once said, 'In Chinese painting, solid forms and empty spaces have a rhythm, constantly in motion as each pushes at the other, giving the pictorial space a wonderful balance between lightness and weight. If you say my painting is different from most Western painters, it probably has to do with my concepts of handling space.'
Visiting the Yellow Mountains in the 1980s
A year and a half before the completion of 28.11.84 (Lot 366), Zao Wou-ki returned to his homeland. In November of 1982 he first traveled to Beijing, taking part in the opening ceremony for the Fragrant Hill Hotel. He then visited Taiwan, and in the fall of 1983, at the invitation of the Chinese Ministry of Culture, he returned to hold several exhibitions. The National Art Museum of China and his alma mater, the China Academy of Art (previously known as the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts) both exhibited his work. During his free time he toured the Yellow Mountains, as the kind of scenic vistas they offer, unique to China, always provided inspiration for his painting. Zao's 28.11.84, dating from 1984, does indeed evoke the clouds and mists of the Yellow Mountains. Their soaring peaks rise up into the clouds, dense rolling cloud banks that float and drift with the wind like a vast sea that stretches sometimes as far as the eye can see, in a majestic and otherworldly scene. On his blank canvas Zao Wou-ki creates a richly meaningful space – a space in which we can remember, or imagine, or linger for a time, a place which ultimately becomes an individual space capable of connecting with the lives of viewers.
Zao Wou-ki's 28.11.84 marks the completion of a stylistic transition: from the 1960s - when bold lines and surging, agitated blocks of color dominated his canvases - to the 1980s when his use of color-wash effects from Chinese ink painting liberated the expressive qualities of color itself.
A Collision of Hues, the Birth of Color
28.11.84 is nothing if not a field of colors being born—new colors created from collisions of others. Zao's colors in the '80s became lighter, more graceful, and gentler. In ink painting, new colors are coincidentally created by the mixing of colors the moment colored ink contacts the absorbent, unsized Xuan paper. Zao's focus, however, was not just on new colors but on blending them together, making natural transitions between them of utmost importance. He deliberately increased the proportion of solvent when mixing pigments, and when applying them, he tried to spread them as evenly as possible to leave no brush marks, creating continuous colors that flowed, permeated, and spread. Like drops of color falling into clear water, they mix gradually to form new hues. The pastel violet at the lower right of 28.11.84, along with the left blue-violet, silver-blue, and pastel blue, creates distinct layers. In the lower right, light green and orangeyellow flow across the canvas. Zao further adds touches of black and white, strongly opposing colors, with Chinese ink painting applications, further enhancing spatial depth.