Zao Wou-Ki

Collection particulière, France

The colours are fairly accurate in the catalogue illustration, although the blue in the upper part of the work is brighter in the original than in the catalogue illustration and the orange in the lower part of the work is a bit lighter in the original than in the catalogue illustration. The work is executed on its original canvas, not relined. Few scattered hairline cracks - only visible under very close inspection - have been carefully stabilized. Are only visible under UV light : - minor retouchings located along the right, lower and left edges. - 7 minor (from approx. 0.2 to 0.5 cm) retouchings located in the lower part of the work - 2 areas of retouching located in the lower part of the work. This work is in very good condition.
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16.04.62 est une oeuvre d’un lyrisme aussi déchainé qu’harmonieux.

La toile est contemporaine de l’exposition d’un ensemble d’œuvres de Zao Wou-Ki en Espagne, à Madrid puis à Cordoue. Dans la préface du catalogue rédigée par Michel Ragon, une citation de Che-Tao, peintre du XVIIème siècle, retient l’attention : « Les gens croient que la peinture et l’écriture consistent à reproduire la forme et la ressemblance. Non, le pinceau sert à faire sortir les choses du chaos ». Comment mieux exprimer les tourments de l’abstraction et les tourbillons jaspés de 16.04.62 ?

L’intensité des rouges et l’intransigeance des noirs ont peut-être quelque chose à voir avec les couleurs des maîtres Espagnols que Zao Wou-Ki voit lors du séjour en Espagne, au premier rang desquels Velasquez et Goya. Il y a dans 16.04.62 une vigueur « terrestre » équivalente au feu des toiles des premières années de la plongée dans l’abstraction (1954) jusqu’aux toiles du premier séjour à New York (1957) où Samuel Kootz devient son marchand attitré. Les bruns orangés - or brossés dans la partie basse de la toile ont la flamboyance sourde des incandescences tapies, de celles qui sont souterraines. Au centre de la composition où converge la densité diffuse de la toile, il y a comme une assomption soudaine de terre et de feu : des éclats rouge vif écrasés au couteau surgissent d’entre les ombres noires.

Immédiatement après le retour des Etats-Unis, Zao Wou-Ki entre dans une phase dite plus « aérienne » où il exploite l’effet vibratoire des couleurs. Surplombant les trois quart inférieurs de 16.04.62 qui baignent dans une atmosphère sulfureuse, un glacis de bleus, de turquoise et de cendre ouvre subitement la composition. Quelle manière admirable ici : étirée au couteau à palette, les couleurs superposées en couches fines dévoilent d’indéfinissables sous-jacences. Ce sont ces transparences, en plus des tons clairs, qui créent un intense effet d’oscillation atmosphérique. A gauche, stupéfiante, une écume d’un bleu pur et froid semble venir d’ailleurs.

Convoquer la terre et le ciel pour parler d’une œuvre de Zao Wou-Ki et les couleurs qui sont naturellement associées à l’une et à l’autre ne trahit pas une vision incapable de conceptualisation et d’abstraction. Mais nous pensons que ces forces sont si fondamentalement consubstantielles à la manière dont Zao Wou-Ki pense, ressent et peint qu’elles sont également les forces invisibles de sa peinture. C’est tout l’effort d’abstraction de Zao Wou-Ki d’un schéma préexistant cosmogonique et symbolique qui est admirable. Dans ces sphères, à la croisée de souffles antagonistes, 16.04.62 fait partie des prouesses.

16.04.62 is a work of poetry that is as harmonious as it is riotous.

The canvas was painted at the same time as the exhibition of a group of Zao Wou-Ki’s works in Spain, first in Madrid and then in Cardona. The catalogue’s foreword written by Michel Ragon quotes the words of Che-Tao, a seventeenth century painter: “People believe that painting and writing are about reproducing form and resemblance. No, the paintbrush is used for conjuring things out of chaos.” How better to describe the torments of abstraction and the mottled turbulence of 16.04.62?

The intense reds and intransigent blacks are maybe linked to the colors of the Spanish masters that Zao Wou-Ki saw during his stay in Spain, and primarily Velazquez and Goya.  16.04.62 contains an “earthly” vigor equivalent to the fire of the canvases belonging to the first years of his plunge into abstraction (1954) up to the works of the artist’s first trip to New York (1957) when Samuel Kootz became his official dealer. The orange browns – or brushed in the lower part of the canvas – have the muted flamboyance of glows burrowed below ground. At the heart of the composition where the canvas’s diffuse density converges, there is a kind of sudden assumption of earth and fire: bursts of bright red paint crushed by the knife emerge form the black shadows.

Immediately after Zao Wou-Ki’s return to the United States he entered what is known as his “aerial” phase where he exploited the vibratory effect of color. Hanging over the lower three quarters of 16.04.62 which bathes in a sulfurous atmosphere, a glaze of ash blues and turquoises suddenly opens the composition. Such marvelous technique is at work here: the colors are spread with a palette knife and superimposed in thin layers to reveal indefinable underlying effects. The transparencies in addition to the light tones create an intense effect of atmospheric oscillation. On the left a superb foam of pure, cold blue seems to rise out of nowhere.

Calling upon the earth and the sky to describe a work by Zao Wou-Ki and the colors that are naturally associated with them does not betray a vision incapable of conceptualization and abstraction. Yet it seems these forces are so fundamentally consubstantial to the way in which Zao Wou-Ki thinks, feels, and paints that they are also generally the invisible forces of his paintings. Zao Wou-Ki’s entire effort towards abstraction, of a preexisting cosmogonist and symbolic design, is admirable. In these spheres, at the crossroads of hostile winds, 16.04.62 is one of his finest achievements.