Zao Wou-Ki (Zhao Wuji)

Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei and Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo labels affixed to the reverse

Private Collection, Canada
Sotheby's, New York, 9 November, 1989, lot 139
Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo
Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei 
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Shanghai, Shanghai Art Museum, Zao Wou-Ki 60 ans de peintures, 4 November 1998 - 29 January 1999, pl.54, p.159
Beijing, The National Art Museum of China, Zao Wou-Ki 60 ans de peintures, 11 February - 11 March, 1999, pl.54, p.159
Guangzhou, Guangdong Provincial Museum, Zao Wou-Ki 60 ans de peintures, 21 April  - 20 June, 1999, pl.54, p.159
Tokyo, Bridgestone Museum of Art, Ishibashi Foundation, Zao Wou-Ki, 16 October 2004- 16 January 2005, p.103 

Jean Leymarie, ed., Zao Wou-Ki, Edicions Poligrafa, Barcelona, 1978, pl.124, p.174
Jean Leymarie, ed., Zao Wou-Ki, Heir et Demain, Paris, 1978, pl.124, p.174
Jean Leymarie, ed., Zao Wou-Ki, Edicions Poligrafa, Barcelona, 1979, pl.124, p.174
Jean Leymarie, ed., Zao Wou-Ki, Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 1979, pl.124, p.174
Jean Leymarie, ed., Zao Wou-Ki, Circle d’Art, Paris, 1986, pl.124, p.174

This work is overall in very good condition. There is no sign of restoration under UV examination.
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The Emergence of Majesty
Zao Wou-Ki's big-hitting masterpiece, 08.03.66

"I was able to really let go and simply paint as I felt, because issues of technique were behind me, and I painted according to my mood. Larger canvases meant I had to wrestle with space- not just to fill it up, but to really inject it with life, and to project myself into it completely. There, I have room to breathe, and can move around as I wish. I wanted to express the feeling of movement: movement that turns back and lingers, or movement with the power of wind and lightning. I wanted to use the contrasts and vibrations within a single colour to bring movement to the canvas."

Zao Wou-Ki

 

In 1963, Zao Wou-Ki moved into a new, larger studio on rue Jonquoy in Paris. It was a three-storey building facing the sun, and it gave him sufficient space to bring in enormous canvases and move his easel around freely. Zao could now let himself go and paint large-scale images, and enjoy the happiness and abandon with which his brush could move across the spacious canvas. This is how many of his larger works came into being. By the mid-60s, Zao had reached the pinnacle of harmony in both his personal and artistic life. In France, his works were taken on by the renowned Galerie de France, which organised solo exhibitions for him once every two years. In the US, he began working with the Pierre Matisse Gallery and Kootz Gallery as well as exhibiting his paintings in a string of world-famous museums, such as in the Paintings Beyond Dimensions group exhibition at the American Centre in Paris, where he appeared alongside the American master of modern art, Robert Indiana. In 1965 he also held a retrospective of his work at the Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany. Zao has said that, "At that time, my many years of hard work finally seemed to be paying off, and I had reached the top of my international acclaim". In the face of his canvas he was unafraid, fearless, and the question of technique no longer existed for him. He threw himself entirely into the creative process, establishing an interaction between himself, nature, and Eastern and Western tradition, issuing forth bright sparks as he went. The large painting up for auction today, 08.03.66, was created against this backdrop.

Harnessing Darkness to Control the Whole - Striking the Balance between Movement and Stillness

"I can never deny the impact Paris has had on my path to becoming an artist. Yet that said, as I have grown and become more self-confident, I have slowly rediscovered China. Chinese culture has made its stamp on my work as a kind of birthright, and paradoxically it was because of Paris that I returned to my roots."

Zao Wou-Ki

In 1950s and 60s Paris and New York, a great many artists such as Pierre Soulages and Franz Kline were inspired by the oriental art of calligraphy, and began to use pure black and white to create expressive abstract paintings. Indeed, calligraphic art originated in China, and there is much exploration and discussion of ink colours in traditional Chinese ink paintings. For Chinese painters, ink is not a uniform black colour. Like the Tang dynasty art critic Zhang Yanyuan wrote in his Famous Paintings Through History, "Ink encompasses all the five colours". A single ink can be thin, thick, heavy, light, rich or pale to evoke different feelings in people.  From a young age, Zao Wou-Ki was influenced by calligraphy and ink paintings, so by the end of the 50s it was almost natural that he began to use minimal colouring as a concrete response to the representation of movement in worldwide abstract art, thus demonstrating a wholly different artistic path to that of Western artists at the time.

As shown in 08.03.66, he restricted his main colours to black, brown and white. Zao's brush, tainted with jet black ink, makes rapid horizontal strokes along the bottom half of the painting, the multiple layers of black forming a structure bristling with power and depth, whereas trembling, free-flowing black lines spread out across different directions in the top half. Here the swirling structure breaks up the original static horizontals, as though the artist has instantly condensed the trace of a flock of birds in flight, or drawn the movement of a cyclone, turning an invisible nameless energy and natural pulse into concrete lines that tremor and beat before our eyes. Each stroke of the brush going left, right, up, down and back around belies the artist's profound knowledge of calligraphy. Zao not only infuses his wrist into the vigour of his strokes, but also his arm and even his entire body, and this is a strength capable of absorbing people. The result is that the entire piece feels alive, and life is injected into the canvas, According to the British art critic Michael Sullivan, "Zao Wou-Ki’s large abstract oil paintings combine calligraphic liveliness with an atmospheric depth that owes nothing to Pollock or Klien, but is the expression of his instinctive Chinese feeling for three-dimensional space. The Chinese artist is never concerned with the surface of things. He is always aware of what lies behind it." 08.03.66 is a reflection of this particular brand of oriental aesthetics.

In 08.03.66, Zao Wou-Ki uses his unique style coupled with thick Western oils to mute the colours as much as possible, presenting a modern interpretation of traditional Chinese calligraphic painting and the beautiful grace of ink. He uses his keen insight to turn all of his worldly feelings and emotions into fully abstract lines of colour and macroscopic arrangements, in which the heavy weight of the black ink is both imposing and majestic, and the sparse grey running up and down in the background provides the painting with space to relax. In this piece, Zao has struck the perfect balance between emptiness and fullness, movement and stillness. He walks the path of traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting culture, wrapping a cloak of mystery around the ordinary, and creating the infinite on a finite canvas. The piece is difficult to gauge at first, but a closer examination brings its rewards. It is abstruse yet clear, reverberate with a lofty grandeur, and completely unforgettable.