Zao Wou-Ki

French painter of Chinese origin, Zao Wou-Ki (1921-2013) was lauded throughout his career for his non-representational paintings that blended ancient Chinese tradition, European abstract painting, and American abstract painting through abstract painting compositions. Using primarily oil paint, Chinese ink, lithography, engraving, and watercolor, Zao developed a unique style of painting that sought to capture the elemental forces of nature defined by expressive lines, deeply saturated color and lyrical abstraction. Consequently, Zao Wou Ki paintings for sale on Bidsquare online auction offer recognizable touchstones for collectors of all aesthetic persuasions.

About Zao Wou-Ki

Born in Peking (now Beijing) China, Zao Wou-Ki studied at the Hangzhou Fine Arts School and was influenced by the works of traditional Chinese ink painting, Japanese art as well as Western painters. The artist moved to France in 1948, where he was soon assimilated into the city’s avant-garde artistic renewal scene, becoming the neighbors and friends of artists including Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Pierre Soulages, and Sam Francis. The capital city became his inspiration and his work began to shift towards abstraction, developing a bolder and more vibrant style of painting in his works.

Returning to the brush-and-ink technique in the 1970s, he incorporated Chinese influences as his work shifted to the delicate swirls of Chinese ink paintings, characterized by its references to Chinese calligraphy, becoming less focused on line and gesture, and instead more as fragments of larger scenes with the foreground and background entirely blurred. Taken in its entirety, Zao's oeuvre presents a life of experimentation and negotiation between abstraction and figuration, eastern and Western artistic traditions, as he remained an important figure in abstract painting in mid-century art history.

In 2002 Zao was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts and remained its member until his death. He received the Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur and the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale Award for Painting. Today, the artist’s works are part of the permanent collections of leading international museums including the Louvre, the Centre Pompidou, Tate Gallery in London, the Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among many others.

Interesting Facts about Zao Wou-Ki

• In 2011 Zao set his personal auction record of HK$68,980,000(US$8,863,930) at Sotheby's in Hong Kong, China.
• In 2018, Christie’s Hong Kong sold his giant triptych June-October 1985 for over $65 million.