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Zhong Cheng 2024 Autumn Auction「Modern And Contemporary Art」

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    ZAO WOUKI (1921-2013)

    23.4.79

    1979

    Oil on Canvas
    65x54cm

    Signed Wou Ki in Chinese and ZAO in English Signed on the reverse: ZAO WOU-KI in English, dated 23.4.79

    Estimate TWD 18,000,000-28,000,000
    USD 582,900-906,700
    HKD 0-0

    Hammer Price TWD 24,000,000
    USD 764,331
    HKD 6,030,151

The following Lot comes with a photograph of the work that is signed by artist Zao Wou-Ki

Provenance：

Illustrated："ZAO WOU-KI," Editions Cercle D’Art, Paris, 1986, Page 349, No. 517

Exhibition：

Exposition：

"I believe that all painters are realists for themselves. They are abstract for other people."- Zao Wou Ki

Zao Wou-Ki was born in 1921, passed away in 2013. Upon graduating from Hangzhou School of Fine Arts, he moved to Paris in 1948, where he cultivated an extensive circle of friendships with fellow artist and influential cultural figures, including poet Henri Michaux, artist Pierre Soulages, Alberto Giacometti, Hans Hartung, Sam Francis, Norman Blum, the Prime Minister of France Dominique de Villepin, architect I. M. Pei among many others. Zao spent nearly half of his lifetime devoted to Paris art circle, he eventually became inseparable from Paris. Renowned for making the Western and Eastern visual style meet, in 1994 he was granted the Praemium Imperiale of Japan and promoted as Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur in 1993. The paintings of Zao’s are part of the permanent collections of more than 150 leading international museums in over 20 countries including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Tate Gallery London amongst others. Zao Wou-Ki is among the most important and recognized Chinese artists in the world for his important contribution to Chinese Abstract art. 

Zao Wou-Ki’s artistic journey can be examined over the span of 70 years, there were two critical transitional phase. The first key transition took place in 1950, when he became fascinated by Shang-dynasty oracle bone script, which led to his more energetic and daring approach that signaled his “Hurricane Period” in the 1960s. The second most crucial transition occurred in 1970, when he had returned to brush-and-ink technique, he rediscovers his roots in traditional Chinese culture. Zao explained in a 1962 interview with the French magazine Preuves, ‘Although the influence of Paris is undeniable in all my training as an artist, I also wish to say that I have gradually rediscovered China.’ He added, ‘Paradoxically, perhaps, it is to Paris that I owe this return to my deepest origins.’ The transformation in his fundamental core prompted him to evolve in a revolutionary way. The Fine Arts Professor of NYU, Jonathan Hay, wrote a review on Zao Wou-Ki’s 2003 solo exhibition in New York, he talked about the significance of the transition in the artist’s late oil painting works, “In the course of 1979 Zao abandoned his older approach altogether and devoted himself entirely to the newstylistic direction that he had traced out for himself in a few key painting of the 1970s. Out of this shift came a decade of work that attains a state of grace: a quality of gesture that is stripped of all hurriedness and creates a powerful “bone-structure” (to use a term from Chinese calligraphy and painting), a luminosity extending from infinite softness to enveloping darkness, a topography of form that opens itself to stillness and silence”  

Works that belong to the “Hurricane Period” in the 1960s are defined by bold and powerful brushstrokes that are full of momentum. Zao Wou-Ki remained faithful to the theme of universe, space and momentum even up to the mid 1970s; however, the fast and sharp brushstrokes are quickly replaced by washes of diluted ink and “vacantness” to reflect elements of nature, such as fire, water and earth, and more similar to the context of landscape painting. His paintings in this period are especially playful and lively, the rainbow of tones fold over and into each other, filled with light. Zao executed oil paint in the manner of traditional ink practice, by thinning the rich oil colors with significant amount of turpentine, to achieved more middle ground as it blends and blur the line between “virtual” and “reality.” The transitions in color change are completed in a smoky and misty style; furthermore, his late works evoke airy abstract spaces composed of light hue. The center of the work creates a virtual vortex; where colors and forms surround the edges of the four corners and exude the aura of serenity that characterized Zao’s persona. The work guides the viewer’s gaze to the center universe of the composition, as the artist once said, ‘In large vacant space I find rest, and in large color blocks I regain serenity’. “Surface” were used in replacement of “line” in his late composition, as Zao Wou-Ki aim to create an abstract vocabulary that speaks endless movements, continuous rhythm and unify harmony; strongly resembling the Minimal Art movement of the 1960s. 

The painting 23.4.79 was created in 1979, poetically made up of three horizontal dimensions from foreground, mid-ground to background. In between the light and deep tones of green are transitional shades of brown and gray, reminiscent of the rolling hills and lush forests of traditional landscapes. The background is painted with bright yellow hues resembling the warm morning sun. The mid-ground creates an infinite space interlaced with gray-scale palate by techniques such as dry-rubbing, dripping and rendering of colors to make transitions between dimension steady and flowing. The varying tones of black and green in the foreground are closely intertwined, in direct opposition to the openness and vacantness of the background; the two dimensions demonstrate conflicting qualities such as, moving and still, virtual and real; at the same time, it may be a metaphor for the unseen and rhythmus wind that travels within the physical and still mountains, eventually the abstract forms became our own perception of nature in both appearance and performance. Zao Wou-Ki said “I saw space being born from my brush, it follows my thoughts and came to form, a lively feeling as it expands outwards, with vigorous colors and brushstroke, as if time is also vividly lost. In”23.4.79 viewers are led into the Chinese legend of “Pangu- Creator of the World.” According to the legend, in the beginning there was only darkness and chaos, and the sky and earth were one blurred entity. This vast “egg” was subjected to two opposing forces of principles. The interaction between the two forces “yin” and “yang” gave birth to Pangu, causing the egg’s shell to crack thus separating the sky from the earth. Similar to the legend, the painting depicts the restless energy and chaos in the foreground, as light gradually emerges separating the two worlds. This is an indication of the artist’s evolution after the 1970s, as he abandoned all “shapes,” “forms” and “simulating nature”; his rapid and thick brushstrokes followed by matured precision and mastery of colors create a more in-depth, abstract and dynamic expression of a universal scenery.  

Former French Prime Minister, poet and art critic Dominique de Villepin described Zao Wou-Ki’s art, “Enthusiasm dwells in Zao Wou-Ki’s paintings. It is a possession, some sort of communication with the world, an extraordinary union between soul and matter. In his paintings, creative strength never parts from life itself. On both sides of the canvas are spun the threads of related experiences. They cross and interpenetrate, without ever blending. The witness is snatched up. He has to conquer his freedom, to fight in an arena of colors, before emerging transformed, like rescued from the waters. The witness, the artist and the painting are caught in a common relationship that becomes the threshold to the collective enchantment of the world.” passage from «Dans le Labyrinthe des Lumières» (2010, Page. 31). Zao Wou-Ki’s artistic achievement lies not only in his unique style that extends from Western Abstract Expression, but also in his profound insights and re-creation of Oriental Landscape aesthetics. Over the course of sixty years in his artistic career, Zao has left an impressive collection of rich and delightful works. They serve as a witness of the artist’s life that is unwavering and in constant pursuit for transcendence and new discoveries. They also represent the obstacles and hardship in his exploration path of merging the Chinese and Western aesthetics; however, in the end, they led the artist to his inner-self and realizes absolute completeness.

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