• The Story of Zao Wou-Ki
    Zao Wou-Ki in his Paris studio in 1958. Rights Reserved.

    The Story of Zao Wou-Ki

    Zao Wou-Ki (Chinese/French, 1921–2013), born in Beijing, China, was an internationally-renowned Abstract artist. His role in the Lyrical Abstraction circle of postwar painters in France represented a juncture of Chinese and postwar European and American painting traditions.

     

     

  • 1920s
    Zao Wou-Ki circa 1920. Rights reserved.

    1920s

    Zao Wou-Ki Was born in Beijing in February, 1920. According to Chinese documents, he was born on the 13th; on his French naturalisation documents his birthday was noted at the 1st.

    His family moved to Shanghai a few months later.

     

    He was born into the T’chao family, descended from the Song dynasty. When he arrived in France, T’chao Wou-Ki became Zao Wou-Ki, with Wou-Ki as his given name.

  • 1930s
    Zao Wou-Ki circa 1935, at Hangzhou School of Fine Arts. Rights reserved.

    1930s

    Zao Wou-Ki drew and painted from the age of ten with the encouragement of his family, intellectuals who held painting in great respect. His grandfather taught him to draw the characters of the Chinese alphabet, essential groundwork for the art of calligraphy.

     

    At 15, Zao Wou-Ki passed the entrance exam for Hangzhou School of Fine Arts, where he spent six years learning from both Chinese and Western teachers. He broke free from the curriculum early on, to start painting with oils.

     

    In 1938, the School of Fine Arts moved from Hangzhou to Chongqing, ahead of the Japanese invasion.

     

  • 1940s
    Zao Wou-Ki with his sisters in Hangzhou circa 1946. Rights reserved.

    1940s

    In 1941, after graduating, Zao Wou-Ki worked as an assistant teacher at the school. He held his first personal exhibition in Chongqing. During this time, he was very influenced by Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso. In 1946, Vadime Elisseeff, the Cultural Attaché of the French Embassy in China, who Zao Wou-Ki met in Chongqing, urged him to go to Paris. Elisseeff took 20 of Zao Wou-Ki’s works back to Paris, to show at the Cernuschi Museum’s Exposition de peintures chinoises contemporaines (Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Painters).

     

  • Zao Wou-Ki (third from right) with his whole family at the port of Shanghai, before leaving for France, February 26, 1948. Rights reserved.
  • After a solo exhibition in Shanghai, Zao Wou-Ki decided to move to Paris, to further his artistic studies. He left...
    Zao Wou-Ki in Paris in 1948. Rights reserved.

    After a solo exhibition in Shanghai, Zao Wou-Ki decided to move to Paris, to further his artistic studies. He left Shanghai with his wife, Lalan in 1948, the couple took a small studio in the creative district of Montparnasse, with Alberto Giacometti as a neighbor. He learnt French at the Alliance Française and frequented the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.

     

    In 1949, Zao Wou-Ki discovered lithography with the printer Desjobert, and had his first solo exhibition in Paris, at the Galerie Creuze.

     

  • 1950s
    With Jean-Paul Riopelle in Zao Wou-Ki’s studio, in front of Foudre, 1956. Rights reserved.

    1950s

    In 1951, gallerist Pierre Loeb visited Zao Wou-Ki’s studio on the advice of Henri Michaux. The first exhibition of Zao Wou-Ki’s works at his Galerie Pierre was held in June, the beginning of a collaboration that would last until 1957. Zao Wou-Ki was introduced to the work of Paul Klee during a trip to Switzerland. Through Klee’s work, he discovered another approach to painting, one full of symbolism, that inspired him to move towards abstraction. 1953 would see a shift in style: “No more still lifes or flowers, I am aiming for an imaginary and indecipherable new writing”.

     

  • 1960s
    In his Paris studio with 29.09.64 and an early version of 21.09.64, around 1964. Photo Budd

    1960s

    In 1961, Zao’s first exhibition at the Tokyo Gallery in Japan, the year after, he made ten lithographs to illustrate La Tentation de l’Occident (Temptation of the West), by Andre Malraux, then the French Minister of Culture, and with Malraux’s support, he would be granted French nationality in 1964.

     

    Zao Wou-Ki contributed to the French section of the World Fair in Montreal in 1967, then he has exhibitions at the Franck Perls Gallery in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1968.

     

    In 1969, he became a retrospective at the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal and the Musée du Québec.

  • 1970s
    Zao Wou-Ki in his Paris studio, 1973. Photo Mohror

    1970s

    Zao Wou-Ki rediscovered the challenging technique of China ink after encouragement by Henri Michaux in 1971. A year later, his wife, May, died in March. Later that month, Zao Wou-Ki left for China to visit family he had not seen since 1948. After long months of grieving, Zao Wou-Ki resumed work to make large-scale paintings that would be exhibited in 1975 at the Galerie de France. He made trips to China in 1974 and in 1975.

     

  • In 1977, Fourteen paintings, most of them in large-scale, were shown at the Fuji Television Gallery in Tokyo, including Hommage à André Malraux (Homage to André Malraux) (200 x 525 cm). Thanks to its director, Susumu Yamamoto, works entered several of the most important Japanese collections, including the Hakone Museum and the Ishibashi Foundation. Zao Wou-Ki and Françoise Marquet married in July.

     

     Zao Wou-Ki donated work to the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 1978, completing a series of etchings already kept by the Cabinet des Estampes. The donation was presented to the public the following year. In 1979, New York art dealer Pierre Matisse visited his studio and offered to show paintings and drawings at his gallery. After not showing work in the city for 15 years, the project was of major importance for Zao Wou-Ki. 

     

     

  • 1980s
    Painting with China ink in his Paris studio, 1981. Photo Serge Lansac.

    1980s

    In 1981 – 1982, Two triptychs completed for the exhibition at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais in Paris, the first time a French museum had shown an exhibition of his work. The show then traveled to seven museums in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. After that, Zao Wou-Ki traveled to Taipei, Taiwan where the National Museum of History was showing his work. On the invitation of the Chinese Minister of Culture, Zao Wou-Ki exhibited in his native land for the first time since 1948, showing work at the National Museum in Beijing and also in his old school in Hangzhou, which had since become the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts.
  • By then, his work had become too important for him to continue with his responsibilities as a teacher and Zao...
    In class at Hangzhou School of Fine Arts, 1985. Rights reserved.

    By then, his work had become too important for him to continue with his responsibilities as a teacher and Zao Wou-Ki resigned from his post at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. Zao Wou-Ki was made an Officier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur by the French Minister of Culture, Jack Lang.

     

    Zao Wou-Ki and his wife Françoise were invited to teach painting and charcoal drawing, and museology respectively, at Hangzhou School of Fine Arts in 1985. Then, had an exhibition at Artcurial marking the 40th anniversary of his arrival in France in 1988.

     

  • 1990s
    Portrait, 1997. Photo Chou

    1990s

    In 1993-1994, Zao Wou-Ki was promoted Commandeur de l’Ordre de la Légion d’honneur by François Mitterand, the President of the French Republic, awarded the title of Docteur honoris causa by the Chinese University in Hong Kong, the Praemium Imperiale for painting, in Japan and retrospective at Taipei Fine Arts Museum and Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico.

     

    Zao Wou-Ki began work on an ambitious project for the future underground station Oriente in Lisbon. The ceramic wall panel was later inaugurated in May 1998. And between 97 and 98, Zao Wou-Ki traveled with French President Jacques Chirac on an official visit to China. He attended the opening of the Miho Museum designed by his friend, I.M. Pei., plus for a major retrospective organized by the AFAA, L’Oreal and the Shanghai Museum.

     

    It later toured to the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, and Guangdong Museum of Art, in Canton.

  • Exhibition opening in Shanghai, November 4, 1998. Rights reserved.
  • 2000s
    At the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume with his triptych Mai-septembre 89 during the presentation of the ceremonial sword of the Académie Française, November 26, 2003. Photo Dennis Bouchard

    2000s

    In 2000, Zao Wou-Ki accompanied Jacques Chirac, President of the French Republic, on an official trip to China. His work was included in the contemporary section of the major exhibition Chine, la gloire des empereurs, at the Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. Then, he was elected to the French Academy of Fine Arts, replacing Jean Carzou, and was received into the Academy November 26, 2003, In the same year, the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume held the first major French retrospective, including some 100 works from all over the world, seen by 135,000 visitors.
  • In 2006, Zao Wou-Ki was made a Grand Officier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’honneur by President Jacques Chirac. Two...
    With Dominique de Villepin at Hôtel Matignon, 2005. Rights reserved.

    In 2006, Zao Wou-Ki was made a Grand Officier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’honneur by President Jacques Chirac. Two years later, Zao Wou-Ki not only completed two series of original vases for the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, but also had a wide-ranging retrospective of his work by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris traveled to the Suzhou Museum in China, but he decided to stop working with oil paints.

     

    A major monograph was published by Editions Flammarion, with an original critical text by Dominique de Villepin, 300 reproductions and an updated selection of texts written about Zao Wou-Ki’s work in 2009.

     

  • 2010s
    At the Prieuré de Saint-Cosme in Tours, with his stained glass windows in front of the pulpit, July 2010. Photo Philippe Koutouzis

    2010s

    In 2010, Zao Wou-Ki made his last watercolors in the spring.The triptych Hommage à Claude Monet (1991) was presented in the Pavillon France at the World Fair in Shanghai, together with a selection of masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, and exhibited at the Árpád Szenes – Vieira da Silva Foundation in Lisbon.

     

    The inauguration of the 14 stained-glass windows created by Zao Wou-Ki for the dining hall of the Prieuré de Saint-Cosme, near Tours, France, provided a showcase for Zao Wou-Ki’s applied arts work, including pieces for Manufactures nationales de Sèvres and Les Gobelins and porcelaine pieces made with Ateliers Bernardaud in Limoges, France.

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    A year after Zao Wou-Ki settled in Dully, Switzerland with Françoise, he passed away in hospital in Nyon, Switzerland, April 9 2013. In accordance with his wishes, his funeral took place at Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.

  • Coutesy Fondation Zao Wou-Ki
  • The Foundation
    1995. Zao Wou-Ki in his Paris studio. Reserved rights. Photo Credit: Hervé Pasquet

    The Foundation

    The Zao Wou-Ki Foundation works to promote the life and art of the painter Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013).

     

    Through its work, the Foundation honors the artist, safeguards his art and provides education to ensure the transmission of his creative vision to a younger generation.

     

    Registered in Switzerland while the artist was still alive under the Registre du Commerce du Canton de Genève, the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation supports artistic, cultural and administrative activities connected to the work of the artist. It acts under the oversight of the Swiss Federal Department of the Interior.

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