Zao Wou-Ki

Franck Perls, Beverly Hills
Private Collection, New York
Galerie de Montréal, Montreal
Gal Kunstforum, Belgium
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

San Francisco, Museum of Art, Zao Wou-Ki: Paintings, Engravings and Lithographs, 1968
Los Angeles, Frank Perls Gallery, Zao Wou-Ki: Paintings and Engravings, 1968, no. 6, illustrated

Jean Leymarie, Zao Wou-Ki, Barcelona 1979, p. 292, no. 350, illustrated
Jean Leymarie, Zao Wou-Ki, Paris 1986, p. 332, no. 382, illustrated

Colours: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overally tonality is richer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is minor wear with a few spots of associated paint loss to each of the four corners. In the thick impasto paint strokes, there are a few very fine cracks, only visible upon close examination. There is minor paint shrinkage to the centre of the left edge and a further tiny pattern to the left centre of the composition. There is a fine vertical crack to the lower centre of the left edge. There are several tiny paint losses; one to the centre of the composition, one towards the bottom centre of the lower left hand quadrant, and one in the centre of the right edge. There are further tiny losses to the upper part of the right extreme edge, to the left of the signature, and towards the top centre of the left extreme edge. There is very slight canvas draw to the upper left corner. No restoration is apparent under ultra-violet light.
"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."

The authenticity of this work has kindly been confirmed by the artist

"I like people to be able to stroll about in my canvases, as I do myself when I am painting them"  Zao Wou-Ki in conversation with the critic J. D. Rey in: Jean Leymarie, Zao Wou-Ki, Barcelona 1977, p. 43

Painted in 1966, during one of Zao Wou-Ki's most fertile creative periods, 13-2-66 is a dramatic tour de force that combines energetic sweeps of colour with lyrical gestures which dance across the canvas in a sonorous evocation of abstract form. Classically trained at the National School of Fine Arts in Hungchow, just as he signs his name using Chinese characters for his first name and Western orthography for his last, Zao's distinctive style combines traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting techniques with influences from modern masters. His style seems effortlessly light; he paints, as Léger said, "in a mist", marrying traditional Chinese landscape painting and Western abstraction, identifying in each a coexistence with nature.

By the late 1950s, Zao's earlier repertoire of symbols and gestures had evolved into pure, elegiac abstraction. His pictures unfolded like magnificent landscapes, the choreography of indistinct marks haunting the dream-like spaces of the canvas.  Throughout the 1960s, Zao's style broadened as he explored the expressive possibilities and richness of both colour and texture. In 13-2-66, swathes of vivid red meet bands of inky black, the layers built up and scraped back in overlapping bands of colour. Across the picture plane are etched and painted gestures in rhythmic combinations which come together at the central 'nerve point' before dispersing outwards, almost beyond the edges of the canvas. Bubbling and frothing in a twisted current of brushstrokes, 13-2-66 seems to evoke the explosive power of a volcano, suggesting a root in landscape and nature, yet remaining elusive to any single interpretation. As Pierre Schneider observed in his introduction to Zao Wou-Ki's 1967 show at the Galerie de France, 'Instead of absorbing the gesture, the background is increasingly harassed by it. The effervescence first reached the intermediate areas, but now it has been communicated to the whole picture. A broadly sweeping, irresistible movement crosses it from edge to edge" (Pierre Schneider cited in:  Jean Leymarie, Zao Wou-Ki, Barcelona 1977, p. 43).