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拍品專文
Zao Wou-ki's creative career reached a crucial inflection point in1954, as he moved from his Klee-inspired period toward what are known as his "oracle-bone" works. Rather than saying that Zao converted oracle-bone inscriptions into the images which became recurring motifs in his work, it might be better to imagine the process as one in which the artist, through his grasp of the role of line in Chinese art, generalized and simplified images he had earlier drawn from the natural world. His "oracle-bone series" thus came to reflect an observation he once made: "Painting should help people look at things from another point of viewKto do this I have to create a vocabulary that is not dependent on my subject." Our eyes mostly perceive natural objects, their masses and volumes, as blocks or planes. This means that to our subjective visual sense, lines that represent the boundaries of those objects are not naturally derived from them, but are instead an abstraction. Just as when the early Chinese invented Chinese characters, their pictographic structures derived from the depiction of real objects. But as this pictographic aspect weakened and they became less representative of real objects, their nature as abstract representations became correspondingly stronger. During his "Klee" period, ZaoWou-ki began gradually extracting the outlines of objects; during his repeated exploration and use of such line structures, Zao found that "these motifs took on shapes, while their backgrounds began to take on spatial depth, and as I repainted them again and again, discarding previous work and starting over, things that were deep in my mind began to surface." Ciel de Paris (Lot 1128), with its focus on simply structured, character-like inscriptions and their concise yet nebulous forms, is a work that leads us back to the inception of Zao Wou-ki's oracle-bone series.
In Ciel de Paris Zao works with exceptionally pure color. With great control over the texture of his oils, Zao uses a dry brush in combination with a sfumato technique to create a space of indeterminate depth. Zao's oracle-bone inscription motifs in brown seem to float within a grey-white background, with sparse touches of light blue also emerging to reflect the theme of Ciel de Paris ("the Paris sky"). But, notably, Zao does not trace his oracle-bone symbols in just a single hue, but in tones that are gradated from dark to light, and he surrounds them with other pale tones to highlight their presence and accentuate their outlines, making them pulse with a pale glow. While he makes these subtle shifts of color seem completely uncalculated, the carefully shaded transitions from dark to light nevertheless convey a sense of light's penetration and work to create the overall tonal palette of the canvas. Zao once said, "In my canvases I seek free spatial relationships. The type of perspective I use is the multiple, shifting perspectives of Chinese painting." Ciel de Paris creates multiple perspectives by means of the spacing between the oracle-bone type inscriptions and the degree of curvature in their structures. The figurations near the bottom stretch out horizontally, with relatively clear, fine lines, echoing elements of Zao's earlier, Klee-inspired landscapes. Those above gradually spread further apart, their brushstrokes becoming both thicker and more indistinct. Zao in this way recreates the foreground, middle ground, and background layers found in traditional Chinese landscape paintings, and despite Ciel de Paris being a non-representational work, the way he structures its lines and symbolic motifs suggest the contrasts between solid forms and empty space. The well-judged variety of Zao's compositional layout ensures an ideal blend of tension and relaxation and a pleasing rhythm to the movement of the painting.
In comments he made during 1959, Zao Wou-ki referred to Vadime Elisseeff (1918-2002) "a man who has given me great encouragement." Elisseeff was a well known French Sinologist and archeologist who enjoyed terms as chief curator of the Mus?e Cernuschi and as a US-based director of the mus?e Guimet. In addition, he served as chairman of the UNESCO International Consultative Committee on the Silk Roads during the ten years of its existence. Zao met Elisseeff in 1938. The Hangzhou Academy of Art had moved inland to Chongqing to escape the ravages of war, and Zao Wou-ki stayed on as assistant professor after graduation. Elisseeff was then serving in the French embassy as cultural attach?, and was a great admirer of Zao's painting; his encouragement fed the young Zao's ambition to further develop his career by moving to France. In the mid-40s, Elisseeff was requested to select works for its Contemporary Chinese Painting exhibition, and as Zao Wou-ki relates,"There were a number of well-known Chinese painters at the time who were passed over, whereas 20 of my works, representing only a single painter, were sent to the exhibition. Needless to say, voices were raised in opposition to his judgment, and I was the direct recipient of some harsh language. But Elisseeff remained adamant and stood by his decision. Not only that, but they set up a special room in Paris to show my paintings." In 1949, Zao held his first solo exhibition since arriving in France at the Galerie Creuze. And, also at Elisseeff's recommendation, his status in the French art world was cemented by the fact that Bernard Dorival, curator of the Musee Naitonal d'Art Moderne, wrote the foreword to his exhibition catalogue. The Zao Wou-ki work presented here, 5.6.63 (Lot 1129), has been a valued part of the Elisseeff family collection since the 1960s, and now, after nearly 50 years, it makes its first auction appearance at this Christie's spring sale. 5.6.63 is a milestone in Zao Wou-ki's career, and at the same time, testifies to Elisseeff's discerning taste and the strong friendship between Elisseeff and the artist.
In the painting Blue and Gray by abstract impressionist painter Mark Rothko, Rothko places a block of white color above another block of blue in a color arrangement that creates a floating effect. By contrast, in 5.6.63, we find Zao Wou-ki boldly reversing this compositional emphasis, placing a weighty blue above brighter shades of white below. A sense of movement emerges out of overlapping brushstrokes between the two pure tones, which Zao has divided horizontally. Halos of pale Prussian blue hover around the borders of the lower half of the canvas, in an echo of the deep blue-black tonality above, while helping lead the eye in a cyclical movement through the composition that injects a sense of temporal movement into the work's depiction of physical space. But beyond the contrasts of pure color and the artist's structuring of the work's formal elements, 5.6.63 also evokes the interdependence of the forces of Yin and Yang, form and emptiness. In the Book of Changes it is said, "The action of the one Yin the one Yang give rise to the Dao." And Chuangtze said, "Things in their stillness possess the quality of the Yin, and in their movement, they flow as does the Yang." In 5.6.63, profound, remote depths coexist with airy lightness, and each arises out of the other, making this painting and embodiment of this most fundamental aspect of Chinese cosmology. The philosophies of Laotze and Chuangtze hold that all things arose out of primordial emptiness. While the icy wilderness of 5.6.63 is devoid of any sign of a concrete form, the textures of its sometimes heavy, sometimes delicate brushstrokes evoke the vastness of things at the very beginning and the endless living energy and growth of all things in the universe. While traditional Chinese painting sought to present changing perspectives as the viewer's eye moved along a vertical scroll painting or a horizontal handscroll, painters such as Lin Fengmian, early in the 20th century, devoted themselves to uniting Eastern art and Western art. But Zao Wou-ki, an artist of the next generation, abandoned the formal, external elements of Eastern art, and chose instead to convey the essence of traditional Chinese culture, its view of nature and the cosmos, through the inner meaning of his work. Within the limited dimensions of its canvas, 5.6.63 presents a vast and turbulent expanse of space, evoking the living energy of the universe and projecting its endless reaches of space and time.
In Ciel de Paris Zao works with exceptionally pure color. With great control over the texture of his oils, Zao uses a dry brush in combination with a sfumato technique to create a space of indeterminate depth. Zao's oracle-bone inscription motifs in brown seem to float within a grey-white background, with sparse touches of light blue also emerging to reflect the theme of Ciel de Paris ("the Paris sky"). But, notably, Zao does not trace his oracle-bone symbols in just a single hue, but in tones that are gradated from dark to light, and he surrounds them with other pale tones to highlight their presence and accentuate their outlines, making them pulse with a pale glow. While he makes these subtle shifts of color seem completely uncalculated, the carefully shaded transitions from dark to light nevertheless convey a sense of light's penetration and work to create the overall tonal palette of the canvas. Zao once said, "In my canvases I seek free spatial relationships. The type of perspective I use is the multiple, shifting perspectives of Chinese painting." Ciel de Paris creates multiple perspectives by means of the spacing between the oracle-bone type inscriptions and the degree of curvature in their structures. The figurations near the bottom stretch out horizontally, with relatively clear, fine lines, echoing elements of Zao's earlier, Klee-inspired landscapes. Those above gradually spread further apart, their brushstrokes becoming both thicker and more indistinct. Zao in this way recreates the foreground, middle ground, and background layers found in traditional Chinese landscape paintings, and despite Ciel de Paris being a non-representational work, the way he structures its lines and symbolic motifs suggest the contrasts between solid forms and empty space. The well-judged variety of Zao's compositional layout ensures an ideal blend of tension and relaxation and a pleasing rhythm to the movement of the painting.
In comments he made during 1959, Zao Wou-ki referred to Vadime Elisseeff (1918-2002) "a man who has given me great encouragement." Elisseeff was a well known French Sinologist and archeologist who enjoyed terms as chief curator of the Mus?e Cernuschi and as a US-based director of the mus?e Guimet. In addition, he served as chairman of the UNESCO International Consultative Committee on the Silk Roads during the ten years of its existence. Zao met Elisseeff in 1938. The Hangzhou Academy of Art had moved inland to Chongqing to escape the ravages of war, and Zao Wou-ki stayed on as assistant professor after graduation. Elisseeff was then serving in the French embassy as cultural attach?, and was a great admirer of Zao's painting; his encouragement fed the young Zao's ambition to further develop his career by moving to France. In the mid-40s, Elisseeff was requested to select works for its Contemporary Chinese Painting exhibition, and as Zao Wou-ki relates,"There were a number of well-known Chinese painters at the time who were passed over, whereas 20 of my works, representing only a single painter, were sent to the exhibition. Needless to say, voices were raised in opposition to his judgment, and I was the direct recipient of some harsh language. But Elisseeff remained adamant and stood by his decision. Not only that, but they set up a special room in Paris to show my paintings." In 1949, Zao held his first solo exhibition since arriving in France at the Galerie Creuze. And, also at Elisseeff's recommendation, his status in the French art world was cemented by the fact that Bernard Dorival, curator of the Musee Naitonal d'Art Moderne, wrote the foreword to his exhibition catalogue. The Zao Wou-ki work presented here, 5.6.63 (Lot 1129), has been a valued part of the Elisseeff family collection since the 1960s, and now, after nearly 50 years, it makes its first auction appearance at this Christie's spring sale. 5.6.63 is a milestone in Zao Wou-ki's career, and at the same time, testifies to Elisseeff's discerning taste and the strong friendship between Elisseeff and the artist.
In the painting Blue and Gray by abstract impressionist painter Mark Rothko, Rothko places a block of white color above another block of blue in a color arrangement that creates a floating effect. By contrast, in 5.6.63, we find Zao Wou-ki boldly reversing this compositional emphasis, placing a weighty blue above brighter shades of white below. A sense of movement emerges out of overlapping brushstrokes between the two pure tones, which Zao has divided horizontally. Halos of pale Prussian blue hover around the borders of the lower half of the canvas, in an echo of the deep blue-black tonality above, while helping lead the eye in a cyclical movement through the composition that injects a sense of temporal movement into the work's depiction of physical space. But beyond the contrasts of pure color and the artist's structuring of the work's formal elements, 5.6.63 also evokes the interdependence of the forces of Yin and Yang, form and emptiness. In the Book of Changes it is said, "The action of the one Yin the one Yang give rise to the Dao." And Chuangtze said, "Things in their stillness possess the quality of the Yin, and in their movement, they flow as does the Yang." In 5.6.63, profound, remote depths coexist with airy lightness, and each arises out of the other, making this painting and embodiment of this most fundamental aspect of Chinese cosmology. The philosophies of Laotze and Chuangtze hold that all things arose out of primordial emptiness. While the icy wilderness of 5.6.63 is devoid of any sign of a concrete form, the textures of its sometimes heavy, sometimes delicate brushstrokes evoke the vastness of things at the very beginning and the endless living energy and growth of all things in the universe. While traditional Chinese painting sought to present changing perspectives as the viewer's eye moved along a vertical scroll painting or a horizontal handscroll, painters such as Lin Fengmian, early in the 20th century, devoted themselves to uniting Eastern art and Western art. But Zao Wou-ki, an artist of the next generation, abandoned the formal, external elements of Eastern art, and chose instead to convey the essence of traditional Chinese culture, its view of nature and the cosmos, through the inner meaning of his work. Within the limited dimensions of its canvas, 5.6.63 presents a vast and turbulent expanse of space, evoking the living energy of the universe and projecting its endless reaches of space and time.