Zao Wou-Ki | Les Oliviers
'Zao Wou-Ki likes to show us the straight line by concealing it, breaking it and causing it to tremble, then drawing and dawdling the detours of the promenade and the meanderings of the dreaming mind, until, suddenly, with the same festive air that you find in the Chinese countryside and villages, the painting appears, quivering joyously and slightly strange in an orchard of signs.'
In the early 1950s, Zao Wou-Ki travelled around a post-war Europe, holding exhibitions in several countries. Everything that Zao saw and experienced during this period of continuous travel launched a new chapter in his art. European culture and architecture was still unfamiliar to him, and during the trip, he unexpectedly found himself observing other places through the lens of a deep-rooted Eastern consciousness and unearthing similarities with his homeland. This pursuit of liberation guided him back to his Eastern cultural foundation. In 1951, he was inspired by a visit to a museum with a large collection of Paul Klee’s work in Bern, Switzerland. Zao started to abandon representational and narrative methods, and in the years that followed, he focused solely on line, adding abstract elements that reflected his mastery of Eastern aesthetic ideas. He then began to incorporate Han rubbings, bronze inscriptions, and other symbols of ancient Chinese culture. Thus, the concept of ‘signs’ appeared for the first time in his work, as Henri Michaux noted in the preface for Zao’s show at the Cadby Birch Gallery in New York in 1952.
Les Oliviers (Lot 1028), painted in 1952, is a poignant work from Zao Wou-Ki’s early years in France. The forest standing in the middle of the canvas and the human figures and horses lingering in the lower right corner show how Zao simplified a scene into pictographic signs. Compositionally, he drew inspiration for his free-wheeling creations from the Eastern tradition. Dimension and perspective slowly faded from his work, and landscapes dissolved into lines, as his work returned to the essence of multi-point perspective from traditional Chinese art. The forest extends outward from the centre to fill the frame with a balanced formal beauty. Reading the Memorial Stele by Northern Song painter Li Cheng, a work in the collection of the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, shows that Zao took inspiration from sources both ancient and contemporary. In the European tradition, olive trees, with their lush, verdant branches and leaves, stand for peace, hope, and stability. Due to their cold and drought-resistant properties, these trees are also symbols of tenacious vitality. Thus, a work such as Les Oliviers has auspicious meaning, conveying hope and good wishes. In Les Oliviers and Branches (Lot 1018), Chinese modern masters Zao Wou-Ki and Sanyu have used plants to convey warm wishes.
Zao painted Les Oliviers as he was embarking on his trip around Europe, and it distantly echoes Mon Pays (Lot 1045), also offered in this year’s Autumn Sale. These works were created soon after he arrived in France and during his first visit to New York respectively. All of these brand-new experiences were sustained sources of creative inspiration for him. From his perspective as an outsider, he condensed what he saw and felt onto the canvas, serving as a precious record of the artist’s creative career. Zao Wou-Ki’s 1950s work developed a new vision for Chinese abstract art and represented the beginning of his visionary journey with abstraction. Château 07.52-05.06.55, a piece of a similar size to Les Oliviers also painted in 1952, sold for nearly HK$16 million at the Sotheby’s Hong Kong Spring 2021 Sale. The simple yet solemn ochre-yellow tones and a quiet blue-green cluster of trees and buildings pierce the sky—clear connections to Les Oliviers. Untitled (Golden City) (1951), also offered at that Spring Sale, similarly draws on pictograms. The golden light and green-blue tones in that work have continued into Les Oliviers, evoking a distinct Eastern sensibility. Les Oliviers has unquestionable value for collectors, bearing witness to a key period in Zao Wou-Ki’s development in the early 1950s.
趙無極《橄欖樹》
「欲露還掩、似斷還連，線條隨興遊走，描繪出遐思的脈動，這是趙無極喜歡的。驀然間，畫面躍動著一片中國城鎮鄉村特有的喜氣，，在滿園的符號之中，洋溢著歡騰愉悅與溫柔婉轉。」
1950年代初，趙無極在戰後的歐洲四處遊歷，期間輾轉各國舉辦展覽，旅不停歇的過程中，沿途眼之所見成就了藝術家創作表達的全新篇章。當時趙無極對歐洲文化與建築面貌依然陌生，在遊歷時也不期然地利用了紮根於東方的意識底蘊去觀察異鄉，並發掘與故鄉相似之處；正是這種對內在釋放的追尋，引導他回歸東方文化的沉澱。1951年，趙無極在瑞士伯恩參觀了一間收藏了大量保羅·克利作品的博物館，大受啟發，開始捨棄具象敘事方法，並在接下來幾年內轉而專攻線條，加入抽象的元素，與東方美學思想融會貫通，進而開始在作品中融入漢代拓片及青銅篆刻等中國遠古文化圖騰，正如米修1952年為趙無極於紐約布奇畫廊展覽所寫之序言，「符號」這一概念，在藝術家的作品中首次被提及。
創作於1952年的《橄欖樹》（拍品編號1028），即為趙無極赴法初期的精悍之作：畫面中部屹立的樹木森林，右下方悠然的人物和馬匹，可見藝術家將景物簡化成象形符號；構圖處理上，則可見藝術家試圖從東方傳統中找尋自由創作的靈感：立體透視原則逐漸隱沒，風景褪剩至輪廓，回溯中國傳統藝術的散點透視精髓。置中的樹林往四方延伸填滿畫面，呈現均衡的形式美，若與大阪市立美術館收藏北宋李成的《讀碑窠石圖》對照，更可見趙無極汲古開今的創作靈感。橄欖樹枝葉繁密翠綠，在歐洲傳統中寓意着和平與希望，是安定的體現；耐寒耐旱的特性亦象徵堅韌的生命力，本作題名《橄欖樹》則取其吉祥寓意，猶有傳遞着希望與美好之深意與寄願，若與常玉《紅底瓶枝》（拍品編號1018）對照，則可見兩位華人現代大師借助花卉樹木傳遞的美好祝願。
李成《讀碑窠石圖》，水墨絹本，126.3 x 104.9 cm; 49 ¾ x 41 ¼ in.，北宋，日本大阪市立美術館藏
《橄欖樹》誕生之時，正值趙無極展開遊歷歐洲旅程的開端，正好與本次秋拍的《故鄉》（拍品編號1045）遙相呼應，彼此分別創作於藝術家初抵法國及首訪紐約之時，種種嶄新經歷讓藝術家的創作靈感持續湧現，其以異鄉人的視覺，將所聞所感凝於畫布，乃藝術家創作生涯的珍貴紀錄。趙無極的五〇年代創作不僅開闢了華人抽象藝術的新視野，亦代表藝術家抽象創作歷程之起點，具有極高的前瞻性：2021年香港蘇富比春拍中，與《橄欖樹》尺幅相近，同於1952年創作的《莊園 07.52-05.06.55》以15,905,000 港元成交，畫面古樸而肅穆的褐黃色調，藍綠色幽靜森林衝破天空，與本畫一脈相承；另一幅於1951年誕生的《無題（黃金城市）》亦於同場春拍亮相，畫面同樣採用字符構圖，其金光碧色的色調更可見沿用於本作，散發著獨有的東方情調，《橄欖樹》見證著趙無極於五〇年代初關鍵的發展軌跡，其收藏價值不容置疑。
