Zao Wou Ki

ZAO WOU KI (Beijing, 1921 - Nyon, Switzerland, 2013).
Untitled.
Lithograph on 270 gram Vélin d'Arches paper, copy 171/250.
Signed and justified by hand.
Measurements: 90 x 61 cm.
Zao Wou Ki is the second most sought-after postwar artist in the world and is the sixth most expensive artist of all time. In the first half of 2018, his sales ranked only behind those of stars such as Picasso, Monet, Modigliani or Andy Warhol. At the end of 2018, one of his paintings was sold for 56.5 million euros at auction at Sotheby's. The work made Wou-Ki the most expensive Asian artist in history.
Zao Wou Ki was born into a Franco-Chinese family and grew up in a highly cultured environment, interested in the arts and sciences. He studied calligraphy in his childhood, an aspect that would influence his mature work, and later trained in painting at the Hangzhou College of Fine Arts between 1935-1941. Some years later, in 1948, he settled in Paris, in the Montparnasse district, where he followed the artistic courses of Émile Othon Friesz and came into contact with the contemporary artistic avant-garde. His painting is eminently abstract and colorist, very influenced by the work of Paul Klee. He usually works with large masses of intense and contrasting color.