- 34
Zao Wou-Ki
Estimate
700,000 - 1,000,000 EUR
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Description
- Zao Wou-Ki
- Pluie
- signed, signed in Chinese; titled, inscribed and dated 53 on the reverse
- oil on canvas
- 65 x 50 cm; 25 5/8 x 19 11/16 in.
- Executed in 1953.
Provenance
Galerie de France, Paris
Private collection, Geneva
Private collection, France (acquired from the above circa 1960)
Private collection, Geneva
Private collection, France (acquired from the above circa 1960)
Literature
Jean Leymarie, Zao Wou-Ki, Barcelona, 1978, p. 277, no. 249 (date of execution and dimensions erroneous)
Jean Leymarie, Zao Wou-Ki, Paris, 1986, p. 317, no. 281 (date of execution and dimensions erroneous)
Jean Leymarie, Zao Wou-Ki, Paris, 1986, p. 317, no. 281 (date of execution and dimensions erroneous)
Condition
The colours are fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration. Please refer to the Contemporary Art department for a professional condition report.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
CAPTION:
William Turner, Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth, 1842 , Tate, Londres
Zao Wou-Ki, Quand il fait beau, 1955 © Sotheby's, Hong Kong
"Paintings are the pages of the painter's diary."
Zao Wou-Ki 1953, the irreversible leap into abstraction
Pluie is a key work in the career of Zao Wou-Ki. Kept in the same French collection for over five decades, this atmospheric painting reveals more than any other the shift in paradigm that took place in the artist's painting at the beginning of the 1950s. At a time when he was discovering Europe and in particular Switzerland, where he saw for the first time an important group of works by Paul Klee, whose internal universe perfectly resonated with his own sensibility, Zao Wou-Ki turned to abstraction never to look back.
In the winter of 1953 to 1954, Zao Wou-Ki broke definitively with naturalism. Proportions were stretched, perspective disappeared in favor of a subtle play of light and shade, shifts in scale created a new sense of depth. "My painting, he said, has become illegible. Still-lifes and flowers no longer exist. I am tending towards an imaginary, indecipherable script."
Indeed if the title of the work (Pluie) spurs us still to look in this composition for the figurative echoes still perceivable in "Cathedrals" or "Fishing Scenes" from 1951 and 1952, the artist's painting has taken a definitive turn towards abstraction.Beyond this development towards a more lyrical and metaphysical painting, "Pluie" is also emblematic of Zao Wou-Ki's marvelous work on signs, as the motif is at the heart of his canvases, more "signified" than "represented". During these years when he acquired international recognition, and his work was exhibited not only in France but also in Bern, Geneva, Rome, Milan or New York, the shift towards complete abstraction took place indeed through "signs conceived of as supports for this break from appearances." It is important to note that, as Jean Leymarie explains very clearly in his book on the artist, "these invented signs do not, as is generally believed, proceed from calligraphy which for Zao Wou-Ki remained a form of writing with its own rules and legible meaning, but refer to more ancient and mysterious sources, the archaic inscriptions engraved fifteen or ten centuries before our era on the divinatory bones and ritual bronzes of the Chang dynasty. These testimonies to an enigmatic and captivating beauty."
Through these perfectly intelligible signs in "Pluie", Zao Wou-Ki thus gave tribute to to diverse and ancient pictorial genres, in keeping not only with the painting of his time but also the great history of art.
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Fondation Zao Wou-Ki. The work will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné currently being prepared by Françoise Marquet and Yann Hendgen. It is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
William Turner, Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth, 1842 , Tate, Londres
Zao Wou-Ki, Quand il fait beau, 1955 © Sotheby's, Hong Kong
"Paintings are the pages of the painter's diary."
Zao Wou-Ki 1953, the irreversible leap into abstraction
Pluie is a key work in the career of Zao Wou-Ki. Kept in the same French collection for over five decades, this atmospheric painting reveals more than any other the shift in paradigm that took place in the artist's painting at the beginning of the 1950s. At a time when he was discovering Europe and in particular Switzerland, where he saw for the first time an important group of works by Paul Klee, whose internal universe perfectly resonated with his own sensibility, Zao Wou-Ki turned to abstraction never to look back.
In the winter of 1953 to 1954, Zao Wou-Ki broke definitively with naturalism. Proportions were stretched, perspective disappeared in favor of a subtle play of light and shade, shifts in scale created a new sense of depth. "My painting, he said, has become illegible. Still-lifes and flowers no longer exist. I am tending towards an imaginary, indecipherable script."
Indeed if the title of the work (Pluie) spurs us still to look in this composition for the figurative echoes still perceivable in "Cathedrals" or "Fishing Scenes" from 1951 and 1952, the artist's painting has taken a definitive turn towards abstraction.Beyond this development towards a more lyrical and metaphysical painting, "Pluie" is also emblematic of Zao Wou-Ki's marvelous work on signs, as the motif is at the heart of his canvases, more "signified" than "represented". During these years when he acquired international recognition, and his work was exhibited not only in France but also in Bern, Geneva, Rome, Milan or New York, the shift towards complete abstraction took place indeed through "signs conceived of as supports for this break from appearances." It is important to note that, as Jean Leymarie explains very clearly in his book on the artist, "these invented signs do not, as is generally believed, proceed from calligraphy which for Zao Wou-Ki remained a form of writing with its own rules and legible meaning, but refer to more ancient and mysterious sources, the archaic inscriptions engraved fifteen or ten centuries before our era on the divinatory bones and ritual bronzes of the Chang dynasty. These testimonies to an enigmatic and captivating beauty."
Through these perfectly intelligible signs in "Pluie", Zao Wou-Ki thus gave tribute to to diverse and ancient pictorial genres, in keeping not only with the painting of his time but also the great history of art.
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Fondation Zao Wou-Ki. The work will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné currently being prepared by Françoise Marquet and Yann Hendgen. It is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.