Zao Wou-Ki giving a course at the School of Fine Arts in Hangzhou in 1985 © All rights reserved
Events 31.01.23
Creation of the scholarships of the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation for students of the Beaux-Arts de Paris and the China Academy of Art de Hangzhou
The Zao Wou-Ki Foundation undertakes with Beaux-Arts de Paris to support exchanges between French and Chinese students.
The Zao Wou-Ki Foundation joins with Beaux-Arts de Paris for two years to increase the mobility of French and Chinese students and young artists. This partnership is based on a financial support for Chinese and French students studying either at Beaux-Arts de Paris or at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhu, the most important Chinese art school, where Zao Wou-Ki was a student and then a teacher.
This exchange will reinforce the students’ training and the mutual understanding between the two countries.
Four scholarships will be granted every year by educational committees from both schools according to artistic criteria, representing a financial support of €60.000 throughout the academic years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.
Allocation of the 4 scholarships
Grant of €10.000 for 10 months to a Chinese student registered in a degree course at Beaux-Arts de Paris and to a French student enrolled in a post-graduate program in China.
Grant of €5.000 to a French student registered for his/her fourth year of studies who wishes to spend his/her six month exchange at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhu, and to a Chinese student registered at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhu who wishes to spend his/her six month exchange at Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Zao Wou-Ki in his studio in Paris in 1958 © All rights reserved
Established in Switzerland in the artist’s lifetime, the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation is a non-profit foundation with a mission to promote the painter Zao Wou-Ki’s life and works (1920-2013). It thus intends to pay homage, protect and make his work better known to ensure its future transmission by supporting the artistic, cultural and administrative activities related to his work.
Accordingly, it is actively committed in the production of monographic exhibitions as well as in the publication of books on Zao Wou-Ki. It has thus collaborated to the exhibitions entitled “Zao Wou-Ki. L’Espace est silence” (Zao Wou-Ki. Space is silence) at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris in 2018-2019 or also “Zao Wou-Ki. Il ne fait jamais nuit” (Zao Wou-Ki. Night never falls) at the Hôtel de Caumont in Aix-en-Provence in 2021. It is also the co-publisher of the catalogue raisonné of his paintings, which first volume has been published in December 2019 by Editions Flammarion (volumes 2 and 3 are expected by the end of 2023).
Françoise Marquet-Zao, the artist’s widow and president of the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation, has wished this unprecedented commitment with Beaux-Arts de Paris to create a scholarship enabling Chinese students to complete part of their studies in France and in the same manner for French students to study in China.
During the 20th century, many Chinese artists came to complete their studies in France, more especially at Beaux-Arts de Paris, such as Lin Fengmian (1900-1991) who was the first director of the School of Fine Arts in Hangzhu. He acted as a mentor for Zao Wou-Ki, constantly supporting him during his studies and encouraging him to go to France. It is largely because of his teaching and his support that Zao Wou-Ki decided to travel to France in 1948 to learn more about French and Western painting. Upon his arrival, Zao Wou-Ki registered in the class of Jean Souverbie at Beaux-Arts de Paris.
The choice of the School of Fine Arts in Hangzhu has also been obvious. Zao Wou-Ki was a student there from 1935 to 1941, he then became an assistant professor until 1947. To honor the memory of his father, he accepted to be a teacher at the school for one month in 1985, invited by the school.
The creation of these scholarships between the School of Fine Arts in Hangzhu and Beaux-Arts de
Paris is therefore inspired by Zao Wou-Ki’s journey. It also perpetuates the artist’s conviction that the knowledge of other traditions and the experience of past centuries were necessary to find one’s own way.
BEAUX-ARTS DE PARIS
Beaux-Arts de Paris is a place of artistic instruction and experimentation, exhibitions and conservation of historical and contemporary collections, as well as a publishing house.
The School’s first mission is to educate and train students planning to devote themselves to high-level artistic creation. It occupies an essential place on the world stage of art and culture. In accordance with the educational principles that have always prevailed in Beaux-Arts de Paris, the course is studio-based under the guidance of renowned artists and is supplemented by a range of theoretical and technical teaching.
To expand its international influence, Beaux-Arts de Paris cooperates with partners throughout the world: higher artistic education establishments, cultural institutions or research laboratories. With 65 partnerships, the School continues to evolve its international strategy to support student mobility and develop new international educational projects.
Beaux-Arts de Paris, anchored in the economic and social reality, also aims at creating bridges between student life and professional life by introducing its students to the world of art and by encouraging meetings with its actors.
Beaux-Arts de Paris is a member of Université Paris Sciences & Lettres (PSL).
The institution has developed with five of its members the doctoral program SACRe (Science, Art, Creation, Research).
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