Press 23.11.18
Magazine Paris la Douce, « Expo: Zao Wou-Ki, l’espace est silence – Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris », 23 November 2018
The first retrospective in France since the 2003 exhibition at the Jeu de Paume, Zao Wou-Ki, Space is Silence at the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris celebrates the splendor of a unique aesthetic experience and the quest of an artist in perpetual dialog with his contemporaries, in 40 works. Going back to his sources of inspiration, in which Eastern art and calligraphy mix with Paris post-war avant-garde influences, giving way to American abstract expressionism, this exhibition dedicated to the work of Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013) sees the painter regain his position at the heart of the world art scene. Canvases that are meditative, autobiographical and homages to other figures, tell stories of creative meetings with Claude Monet, for example; personal drama and the death of a spouse, yet also friendship, with the poet Henri Michaux and the composer Edgar Varèse. Through an exploration of the large-scale work, this invitation to contemplation powerfully invokes the emotion of a colored breath, dynamic movement and the brush carried by the hand until the mark it makes is diluted into abstraction.
Image: Wou-Ki, Zao. (1920-2013). Space is silence.
Paris: Museum of Modern Art Paris
Paris: Museum of Modern Art Paris