Within the framework of the sale organized by its Publishing Department, PIASA is pleased to offer for sale a selection of engravings by some of the most significant artists of the second half of the 20th century. Among them, the Chinese-born painter Zao Wou Ki is represented by seven works, most of which were produced between 1980 and 1990.
The eldest of seven children, Zao Wou-ki is part of a very old family whose origins date back to the Song Dynasty (11th-12th century). A brilliant pupil, passionate about literature, Wou-Ki drew and painted from the age of ten. His family encouraged the boy in this way.
In 1935, at the age of fourteen, Zao Wou-Ki entered the Hangzhou School of Fine Arts after passing the entrance exam, which consisted of drawing a Greek statue from a casting. He studied for six years drawing from plaster casts and then models, oil painting, traditional Chinese painting with copies and perspective in the Western manner and calligraphy.
Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013) Untitled - 1998, (Agerup 395)
Estimation : 3000 / 4000 €
Zao Wou-Ki settles in the Montparnasse district, in a small workshop in the rue du Moulin-Vert, next to Alberto Giacometti's studio. He learns French at the Alliance française, attends the Académie de la Grande Chaumière where he takes classes with Émile Othon Friesz. A few years later he would say that it was in Paris that he found his true personality. He obtained his French naturalization in 1964.
In contrast to his abstract work which made him famous from the end of the 1950s, Zao Wou-ki's first paintings are realistic paintings in which portraits, still lifes or landscapes appear. But quickly, inspired by the work of Paul Klee, he detached himself from the mimetic relationship to reality and produced abstract compositions. The lyrical power of a painting that becomes gestural is then imposed. Halfway between the modernity of American abstract painting and the tradition of Chinese inks and calligraphy, Zao Wou-ki embodies a bridge between East and West.
Oscillating with great freedom between figurative and abstraction, Hydrangeas - a colour lithograph offers a faithful testimony of the artist's production in the early 1950s. It is estimated at between 4,500 and 5,500 euros.
Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013) Hortensias - 1953, (Agerup 82)
Estimation : 4500 / 5500 €
More representative of the aesthetics that contributed to building the artist's fame, the "Untitled" pieces date from the 1990s. Numbered only 99 copies, they are estimated at between 2,500 and 3,500 euros.
Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013) Untitled - 1998,
Estimation : 2500 / 3500 €
