Past Exhibition  17.06 – 30.12.2023

Last December, 353 prints by Zao Wou-Ki and 27 illustrated books have been added to the collections of the Hospice Saint-Roch Museum in Issoudun (France), further strengthening the link between the artist and Issoudun. These works, offered by Françoise Marquet-Zao, follow the donation of an Indian ink by Zao Wou-Ki made after the exhibition in 2008, and then the important donation, also made by Françoise Marquet-Zao, of the artist’s personal collection, including 90 works by his friends.

These works enrich the museum’s collection of prints. In response to the commitment of the Hospice Saint-Roch for graphic arts, this new donation is the subject of an exhibition that will be held from June 17th to December 30th 2023 in Issoudun.

Picture of the exhibition of the donation at the Hospice Saint-Roch Museum in Issoudun. All rights reserved 

This retrospective ensemble of works covers his entire production of prints: from the first engravings and figurative lithographs of 1949 when he arrives in Paris and discovers these techniques in Desjobert’s studio and with his friends Henri Goetz and Johnny Friedlander, to the last engraved plates published in the 2000s.

This homogeneous ensemble of works, reflecting his pictorial research, evidences the evolution of his work where color and movement occupy a central place. Selected among the donated prints, 170 of them will be exhibited on the walls of the Hospice Saint-Roch Museum, allowing a full understanding of his artistic journey.

Picture of the exhibition of the donation at the Hospice Saint-Roch Museum in Issoudun. All rights reserved 

One of the rooms is dedicated to the technique of printmaking and its different stages of realization: as a matter of fact the donation includes decomposition plates, chromatic tests and etching plates that highlight the richness and difficulty of lithography and engraving techniques, which Zao Wou-Ki fully mastered. Indeed, these tests reveal the demanding and determined nature of the artist who, as in his paintings, repeated his prints several times, sometimes making six or even eight color passages to obtain the work he hoped for.

Picture of room showing etching plates, colors proofs and decomposition plates of the prints by Zao Wou-Ki. All rights reserved

The print was also a way for Zao Wou-Ki to meet and keep in touch with poets and writers, with whom he collaborated on many occasions for illustrated books. The meeting with Henri Michaux in 1949 was decisive: it established a deep friendship and changed the artist’s career. We can also mention his deep friendship with René Char but also Claude Roy. His keen interest in poetry and literature led him to illustrate more than fifty works, never refusing a project even with young authors.

Picture of the exhibition of the donation at the Hospice Saint-Roch Museum in Issoudun. All rights reserved 

Despite his success as a painter, Zao Wou-Ki does not abandon the print, which reflects his pictorial evolution. He devotes himself to it regularly, and does not stop engraving his plates until 2000, constrained by age and by the dangerousness of the chemicals.

Exceptional for their technical mastery and their colors, the works presented within this donation occupy a central place in Zao Wou-Ki’s artistic career and find here the place of choice they deserve.   

Picture of the exhibition of the donation at the Hospice Saint-Roch Museum in Issoudun. All rights reserved 

Link to the exhibition page   

Link to the editor page    

Press pack of the exhibition