Wou-Ki Zao

Zao Wou-Ki - Art studies in Hangzhou; painting tuition with Othon Friesz

Zao Wou-Ki was born in Peking on 13 February 1920. He was from an academic family and learnt the high art of Chinese calligraphy as a child. At the age of 14, he took courses in Chinese painting at the art academy in Hangzhou, but was also interested in the popular painting styles of the West. From 1941 to 1947 he taught at the academy as professor, a period in which his first solo exhibition was held. This was followed by a move to France where he not only wished to see for himself the works of the Western painters he admired, but also started studying lithography at the Grande Chaumière, and in addition, took painting lessons with Othon Friesz. In the cultural centre of Paris, Zao Wou-Ki found an artistic home and met significant greats of the contemporary art scene such as Alberto Giacometti, Henri Michaux and Joan Miró. The work of Michaux in particular had a great influence on the young artist. Zao Wou-Ki visited the Louvre regularly, and his own paintings were initially strongly influenced by the contemporary painting of Paul Klee. 

Transformation into abstract artist; poetic colour explosions

Zao Wou-Ki soon turned increasingly to abstract art; in 1954 he presented an oil painting Vent (Wind), which was a significant milestone for him. For the first time, he had created a picture that told nothing, only hinted at the sounds of leaves or the surface of the water moved by the wind, the artist said in retrospect. This style change turned out to be a fortuitous decision for Zao Wou-Ki as his abstract whirls of colour were soon in demand internationally and the subject of numerous exhibitions. Ever more large format paintings emerged, distinguished above all by their intense use of colour – and an incomparable sense of poetry which the artist always managed to weave into his compositions. For the viewer of the expansive diptychs and triptychs, the impression is of an alternative universe with stars of bright, exploding colours. 

Internationally celebrated artist; dispute over the inheritance

Zao Wou-Ki was granted French citizenship in 1964, not least on the instigation of the writer André Malraux, but did not receive recognition in his former homeland of China until the 1980s, with the Chinese National Museum in Peking exhibiting a selection of his oeuvre in 1983. Prices for the artist’s work now reach the millions; in 2008, his 1956 painting Hommage a Tou-Fou was sold for 4.5 million euro in Hong Kong. Zao Wou-Ki was also not lacking in awards: he received numerous honorary doctorates, the Praemium Imperiale of the Japanese imperial house, and was a member of the French Legion of Honour. In the end, dementia prevented him from continuing his artistic work, and Zao Wou-Ki died on 9 April 2013 in Nyon in Switzerland. Immediately after his death, his widow Françoise Marquet and son Jia-Ling fought fiercely over his inheritance.