Zao Wou-Ki
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BIOGRAPHY
Oil painting by the famous Chinese-French artist Zao Wou-ki. This work was created in 1978, when Zao Wou-ki began to recover the skills of Chinese ink painting that he had learned in China. In this work, the blue varies from top to bottom, from dark to light, and it shows transparency at the bottom of the work, which is an important sign of this period of his artistic work. However, at the center of the disciplinary transformation of blue, there is an expanse of disordered brown, combined with many other colors, which makes the picture chaotic and disordered. But at the same time, it is precisely because of this disordered part that the whole work shows a unique vitality and how the artist thinks about the order of the universe. It is in perfect condition. The canvas is made of cotton and the finish is made with a permanent varnish for long-term preservation.
Zao Wou-Ki (1920 - 2013) was a Chinese-French painter and member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Zao graduated from the China Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, where he studied under Fang Ganmin and Wu Dayu. In 1948, he moved to Paris with his wife Xie Jinglan, a composer, and lived in the same Montparnasse neighborhood where Émile Othon Friesz's classes were held. His early exhibitions in France were praised by Joan Miró and Picasso. In 1983, he returned to his alma mater, the China Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, to lecture. Former French President Jacques Chirac was presented with a painting by Zao Wou-Ki by his ministers at their last meeting. By the end of his life, Zao had stopped producing new paintings due to health problems. He died on April 9, 2013 at his home in Switzerland.