Zao Wou-Ki

ZAO WOU-KI (Beijing, 1920 – Nyon, Switzerland, 2013).
“Composition,” 1994.
Color etching and aquatint on Chinese paper mounted on BFK Rives vellum.
Signed, dated, and numbered III/XXV in pencil.
Printed by the Lacourière et Frélaut workshop, Paris.
Published by Ides et Calendes, Neuchâtel.
Accompanies Pierre Daix’s monograph, *Zao Wou-Ki. L’œuvre 1935–1993*, Ides et Calendes, Neuchâtel, 1994, corresponding to copy III/XXV of the special bibliophile edition, with a cloth-covered slipcase.
Bibliography: Jørgen Ågerup, *Zao Wou-Ki. The Graphic Work. A Catalogue Raisonné 1937–1995*, Heede & Moestrup, 1994, no. 375, p. 203 (reproduced).
Measurements: 22.5 x 20 cm (image area); 39.5 x 33 cm (paper).

This composition belongs to Zao Wou-Ki’s period of full artistic maturity, when his abstract language had attained extraordinary gestural freedom and a particular subtlety in the treatment of light and space. The work is structured around expansive surfaces of deep, translucent blues, set against luminous areas of yellow and ochre tones, onto which dark, calligraphic-looking strokes burst forth. The layering of glazes, the fluidity of the forms, and the delicate balance between areas of dense materiality and open spaces create a remarkable visual depth. His artistic language synthesizes the sensibility of the Chinese pictorial tradition—particularly in the expressiveness of gesture and the treatment of negative space—with the explorations of Western lyrical abstraction. The richness of his chromatic nuances and the tension between spontaneity and compositional balance reflect the uniqueness of his artistic universe.

Zao Wou-Ki was one of the key figures in abstraction during the second half of the 20th century. Trained at the Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, he settled in Paris in 1948, where he developed a personal artistic language that integrated Eastern tradition with European artistic movements. His work evolved toward a lyrical abstraction of great chromatic intensity, in which space, movement, and matter play an essential role. His works are held in institutions such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Musée Cernuschi in Paris.