Oil paintings

Zao Wou-Ki made still lifes using all mediums. Between 1948 and 1954, he painted more than 30. His use of the single graphic line –the floor line or the edge of a piece of furniture – as an indication of depth, is another influence of the work of Paul Cézanne.
His themes of inspiration during this period included fruits (lemons, grapes, figs), flowers (lotus, hydrangea) and animals (fish). He also represented familiar objects (teapots, glasses, bowls, vases and tea cups). Nature morte au Biba, 1952, represents a stringed instrument typical of Chinese music that he kept in his studio at this time.

By the early 1950s, Zao Wou-Ki felt trapped in figuration. The work of Paul Klee would take him in a new direction. Like Klee, he decided to use signs and symbols as he moved further away from strict figurative representation, to invent a language that allowed him to escape the limitations imposed by choice of subject. He re-appropriated ancient Chinese characters for their aesthetic value and invented forms that would take him little by little, ever closer to abstraction. From this point on, he moved into a world without references.
Vent is often considered as his first abstract painting. The figurative element has almost totally disappeared and the long cascade of invented signs has no graphical meaning, evoking instead an impalpable element, the passing wind.

1964, Oil on canvas, 255 × 345 cm.
Musée cantonnal des beaux-arts, Lausanne.
Donation Françoise Marquet-Zao, 2015.
Photo Dennis Bouchard

This very large format work (255 x 345 cm) was painted a year before the death of the composer. It was through Henri Michaux – who also joined Pierre Boulez’ Domaine musical– that Zao Wou-Ki met Edgar Varèse while he was in Paris working on Déserts in 1954. The two men quickly took a liking to one another.
For his tribute, Zao Wou-Ki undoubtedly drew inspiration from Varèse’s music. The dynamic tension and teeming mass movements evoke the sound contrasts and time splits of the composer’s works. Zao Wou-Ki gave the same central importance to emptiness in his paintings, as Varèse gave to silence in his music. They both created a moving space, that dilates and retracts, enveloping the spectator.

En mémoire de May – 10.03.72

10.09.72 – En mémoire de May (10.03.72), 1972, Oil on canvas, 200 × 526 cm,
Centre Pompidou, musée national d’Art moderne / CCI, Paris, France.
Photo Dennis Bouchard

Oil on canvas, 200 × 525 cm.
Rights reserved

Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, Paris
Donation from Françoise Marquet-Zao, 2019
This painting is inspired by Matisse’s famous work, Porte-fenêtre à Collioure, 1914 (Pompidou Center, National Museum of Modern Art, Paris).
In 1984, he wrote about the work: “ (…) In China they say that Porte-fenêtre is a magical painting, because in front of that door, empty and full at the same time, there is life, dust, the air we breathe. But what happens behind it? It’s a vast, black space. It’s an open door onto real painting for all of us.”
This tribute work in honor of one of Zao Wou-Ki’s favorite artists, remained in his collection until his death. His wife donated it to the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris in 2019, rendering it inalienable and ensuring it could be on permanent public view.

Zao Wou-Ki made this painting in memory of Incendie, an oil on canvas dating back to 1954-1955 (130 x 195 cm). Acquired in 1955 by the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the work is unfortunately no longer part of the national collections. Lent out numerous times, the canvas did not return from its last exhibition in Singapore in 1982. Zao Wou-Ki chose to make a fresh reinterpretation of Incendie, more than 40 years after its creation.