Zao Wou-Ki

Canto Pisan, by Zao Wou-Ki, 1972.

• Sold as a set of 8.
• Zao Wou-Ki (Chinese, 1921-2013).
• Etchings and aquatints in colors on Arches wove paper.
• Hand signed and numbered.
• Part of an edition of 50, these being 29.
• Printed by Atelier Bellini, Paris.
• Published by Pierre Belfond, Paris, 1972.
• These works are presented unframed.

These eight original etchings and aquatints in colors are hand signed in pencil by the artist "Zao Wou-Ki" in Chinese and Pinyin at the lower right margin. They are each hand numbered in pencil from the edition of 50, at the lower left margin. The works were printed by Atelier Bellini, Paris and published by Pierre Belfond, Paris in 1972 in a total limited edition of 260 signed and numbered impressions. There were an additional 30 numbered in Roman numerals on Japan nacre and an edition of 180 on Arches wove paper. The eight etchings and aquatints are accompanied by the text and folio case.

The Cantos are a collection of epic poems spanning 40 years of writing by Ezra Pound. The Pisan Cantos were written by the poet during his wartime incarceration following the American liberation of Italy. The Pisan Cantos are significant for their inclusion of Chinese characters and other non-English languages in the core of the texts. With only three books permitted during his detention, Pound selected a text by Confucius in the original language, a translation to English of the same text, and a Chinese dictionary.

Zao Wou-Ki blended traditional Chinese expressionism with Western European abstraction to produce his interpretation of The Canto Pisan. With this series, Wou-Ki continued his ongoing union of Eastern and Western ideas, finding a common visual language. 

Hand signed and numbered.

Ågerup, J. (1994). Zao Wou-Ki - The Graphic Work - A Catalogue Raisonné 1937-1995. Copenhagen: Heede & Moestrup.