Zao Wou-Ki (Zhao Wuji)

Collection of the Yageo Foundation
Christie's Hong Kong, May 29, 2005, Lot 227
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

This work will be included in the artist's forthcoming catalogue raisonné prepared by Françoise Marquet and Yann Hendgen (Information provided by Fondation Zao Wou-Ki).

China, Shanghai, Shanghai Museum of Fine Arts, Zao Wou-Ki: 60 ans de peintures 1935-1998, 4 November 1998 – 31 January 1999, p. 243
China, Beijing, National Art Museum of China, Zao Wou-Ki: 60 ans de peintures 1935-1998, 1 - 31 March 1999
China, Guangzhou, Guandong Museum of Art, Zao Wou-Ki: 60 ans de peintures 1935-1998, April 1999

Pierre Daix, Zao Wou Ki: L'oeuvre 1935-1993, Ides et Calendes, Paris, France, 1994, p. 186
Claude Roy, Zao Wou-Ki, Cercle d'Art, Paris, France, 1996, p. 197
Zhao Zhiheng ed., Zao Wou-Ki, Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan, 2005, p. 121

This work is generally in good condition. There are some minor wear and handling marks around the edges. Under Ultraviolet light, there are signs of inpainting on theses areas: one close to the upper quadrant of the right edge, a few small spots of inpainting in the dark blue area of the lower right quadrant of the canvas.
"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."

Fluctuations of Sunlight and Cloud Shadows
Zao Wou-Ki 15.2.93

By the 1990s, in the realm of art, Zao Wou-Ki had already acquired a high degree of excellence in terms of skill and technique and had received widespread recognition worldwide. As a leader in the field of abstract expressionism, he was not only invited to exhibit his work by first-class institutions of both the east and west, but in 1993 he was also promoted to Commander rank of the French Legion of Honour by President Mitterrand; the then mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, awarded him the Grande Medaille Vermeil de la Ville de Paris (‘Vermeil Medal of the City of Paris’), and he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The work shown in the photograph, 15.02.93 (Lot 28), finished in that same year, is a work in which the artist Zao Wou-Ki drew upon all of his previous experience to create something innovative that surpassed all that he had done before. By then he was in his seventies, and Zao Wou-Ki had already reached a state where he was able to work in any way he wished, while staying within certain boundaries. Not only was he able to handle large canvases with a high level of proficiency, he was also able to confidently challenge himself to continuously improve “to gain greater boldness and freedom”. His work became more lively and unrestrained, boldly applying strokes to produce a rich display of light and colour and construct an unbounded dream space which expresses even more than concrete ones.In this later phase, as Zao Wou-Ki’s experience grew and his temperament changed, his painting had attained a state of elegance. He hoped to simplify the surfaces of his paintings in his pursuit of a space in which to pour his composed and calm state of mind. The poetic sentiment of the Chinese literati and quality of eastern ink painting became pronounced in his work. In his autobiography, Zao Wou-Ki talks about his personal desires at this stage in this way: “These days I only want to paint, wherever the inspiration takes me; whatever colours are needed. Colour is everything, nothing else is: you need to use it in a really simplified way—even sparingly.” In 15.2.93, Zao Wou-Ki streamlined his choice of oil paints so that there were five main blocks of colour, i.e., purple, yellow, blue, pink and a dark, inky indigo-black that naturally meet and cross one another on the canvas to reveal a kind of vast and luminescent expanse. The composition with its inky blue vein that is wiped across the painting, together with the minimalist juxtaposition of colours can be traced back to an important work of Zao Wou-Ki’s from 1986, Hommage à Matisse (02.02.86). Zao Wou-Ki had a great admiration for Matisse and once said that the inspiration for the painting came from Matisse’s Porte-fenêtre à Collioure. He felt that the work shows “A door in which both emptiness and fulfillment exist simultaneously, and in front of which we can find life, dust and the air which we breathe. But what happens behind it? That’s something very dark—a vast space. It’s a wide open door that faces onto real painting.” In January 1993, Zao Wou-Ki visited New York together with his wife and attended a Matisse retrospective held at the Museum of Modern Art. It’s not hard to make the association between the starting point for 15.2.93 and Zao Wou-Ki’s impressions on seeing the original works of Matisse again; his understanding of the essence of color and space in Matisse’s paintings is expressed in this work.

Perhaps Matisse inspired Zao Wou-Ki, through his use of colour, to carve out a great, limitless path. However, in 15. 2.93, Zao Wou-Ki excels in the foundation of his esteem for the great western masters, seeking a more mature, charismatic expression though freehand eastern brushwork that belongs to his own unique artistic vocabulary. On that canvas, Zao Wou-Ki attentively layers pigments, splashing on freely flowing colour. Just like the warm yellow of glazed gold, as if a golden rain has been spilled from above. It is as if sunlight softly infuses the painting with warmth. With a large brush, the artist has smoothly covered the right and left sides of the composition with purple and blue. He boldly pairs these contrasting colours, yet creates a feeling of harmony rather than conflict; here we can see his ingenuity. Zao Wou-Ki once said, “The thing I’m often trying to figure out is: how can one paint the wind? How can one express the clear, bright purity of light? I don’t want to depict nature, but rather create an image that juxtaposes with it—works in combination with it so that you can see within it the rippling of air against the serene surface of water. I want to create new colours, new spaces; create a new lightness. I want to give people a fresh trembling feeling, a feeling of lightness.” Zao Wou-Ki uses that stretch of dark, inky indigo to represent the seemingly vast and limitless sea, the rich, fertile, glorious land, the quiet secluded mystery of midnight. Powerful but fine lines appearing from the splash-ink ink wash shading effect. His brushwork teaches us to make an association between the “antler branch” brushwork in traditional Chinese landscape painting, the extended forms conveying vitality. The artist uses a broad brush to build up colour using a splash-colour technique, alternating between a style of painting that is like Chinese writing— whose softness contains within itself its strength and power—and a unique, sharp dotted brushstroke. Using a large brush he adds detailed layers with wild, powerful sweeping brush strokes, which stain the pure colour beneath. Viewers can feel they are moving along with the kinetic energy of the artist’s body; seeping into the canvas from different directions, like a sea of stars, like a dancing whirlwind, like a gentle breeze swishing across the earth. Zao Wou-Ki seems to instill his brush with the huge scale of the sky and the earth, and at the same time, the minute detail of plants and vegetation. This is what the famous Swiss writer, Jacques Chessex was talking about when he said: “This is a kind of reverie on the distillation of matter, which appears inconceivably and is given substance. We can see within the painting space the marvelous spectacle which is carefree and mellow. With no one depicted, yet there's the highly cohesive forces which enable the association with trails of humanity, and the memory of the artists—all the normal, yet perfect memory traces he ever obtained.”

In 15.2.93, with his intense palette and free, easy brushstrokes, Zao Wou-Ki painted a dreamlike scene of united heavens and earth. The scene is like that which French poet, Henri Michaux, describes: “Secluded space, secluded like numerous fishes falling on the still surface of the water. Happy, deeply happy, the new moon hangs high, glorious and resplendent.” Zao Wou-Ki poured the abstract invisible wind and the gasses of the universe into his canvasses, inviting us into his enchanting visual world and providing us with tranquility and respite from the hubbub of the world outside.