ArtistChinese-Frenchb.1920–d.2013
Zao Wou-Ki
3 active items
Zao Wou-Ki was born on 1 February 1920 in Beijing into a family with deep roots in Dantu, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province. His family had a cultivated appreciation of classical Chinese painting, which gave him early exposure to calligraphy and brush technique. In 1935, at fifteen, he enrolled at the National Hangzhou Art Academy - China's most progressive fine arts institution at the time - where he studied under Lin Fengmian, a director who championed a synthesis of European modernism and Chinese pictorial tradition. Zao completed six years of training there, learning figure, landscape, and Western academic painting side by side.
In April 1948, Zao left Shanghai with his wife Xie Jinglan, a composer, and after thirty-six days at sea arrived in Marseille before settling in Paris. He found a studio in Montparnasse, with Alberto Giacometti as a neighbour. Paris in the late 1940s was a crucible for lyrical abstraction, and Zao moved quickly into this milieu. His friendships included Sam Francis, Joan Mitchell, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Hans Hartung, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, and Pierre Soulages. In 1949 he won first prize in a drawing competition judged by André Lhote and Marcel Gromaire, establishing an early foothold in the European art world.
Through the 1950s, Zao's canvases shifted from figurative references toward increasingly open, atmospheric spaces. A critical turning point came through his relationship with the poet Henri Michaux, who drew him back toward Chinese ink technique. This prompted Zao to reconsider calligraphic mark-making within an abstract framework. By the 1960s, his large oils had reached their most recognisable form: layered fields of translucent colour interrupted by gestural marks that carry the energy of brushwork without describing anything specific. The paintings are often titled by date rather than subject, removing any interpretive cue and placing weight entirely on the visual experience. He acquired French citizenship in 1964, with the support of André Malraux.
Zao received major institutional recognition over the following decades. He was named Officier de l'Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur in 1984, Commandeur in 1993, and Grand Officier in 2006. In 1994 he received the Praemium Imperiale for painting from the Japan Art Association. He was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2002. A major retrospective was held at the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou in 2003. He taught at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts for many years and mentored generations of students.
Zao Wou-Ki died on 9 April 2013 in Nyon, Switzerland. His auction market position strengthened considerably after his death. In 2018, Juin-Octobre 1985 sold in Hong Kong for HK$510 million after premium, setting the auction record for any Asian artist. On the Nordic platform, his 15 items span paintings and prints at Bruun Rasmussen, Aguttes, and Scandinavian houses. The highest result recorded here is 16,070 EUR for an untitled yellow composition lithograph from 1972. Prints from the 1950s-1980s, including editions from the Nobel Prize portfolio and standalone lithographs, circulate at 13,000-22,000 SEK or 13,000-15,500 DKK.