活动  7.12.2022 - 8.12.2022

On Monday December 7th the donation made by Françoise Marquet-Zao to the City of Paris became concrete for nine paintings by Zao Wou-Ki offered to the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. This new donation covers the entire production of Zao Wou-Ki from 1946 to 2006 and includes a large variety of formats, from a 38 x 46 cm oil on canvas to a 195 x 324 cm triptych.

24.09.51, 1951

Oil on canvas, 46 x 55 cm – Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne, donation F. Marquet-Zao 2022. All rights reserved

It also evidences the richness and diversity of his painted works : a landscape created in Hangzhou in China in 1946 when he was a teacher and which shows the influence of Paul Cezanne ; a 1949 nude reminiscent of Matisse ; a subtle still-life with two lemons and two cathedrals from the beginning of the 1950s ; a large abstract painting dated 1973 ; a tribute to the memory of his brother Wou-Wei dated 1979 ; the triptych entitled Le Temple des Han (The Han temple) painted in 2005 ; a last homage to his friend Jean Leymarie dated 2006.

Hommage à Jean – 15.04.2006, (Homage to Jean – 15.04.2006), 2006

Oil on canvas, 162 x 130 cm – Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne, donation F. Marquet-Zao 2022. All rights reserved

This donation perfectly complements the collections of the Museum that owned since 1971 a large painting dated 1968 purchased by Jacques Lassaigne and the Hommage à Matisse (Homage to Matisse) of 1986 donated by Françoise Marquet-Zao in January 2019 together with a large Indian ink and seven painted vases.

Therefore the Museum of Modern Art now owns a group of paintings by Zao Wou-Ki unequalled in French public collections be it by its importance or its diversity. In April 2023, a new presentation of Zao Wou-Ki’s works will dedicate, within the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, a whole room to the artist thus highlighting the importance of Zao Wou-Ki on the French and international artistic scene since his arrival in Paris in 1948.

Link to our article on the first donation to the MAMVP (Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris)
   

Link to the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris   

On Thursday December 8th 2022 has been formalized a new donation by Françoise Marquet-Zao to the Museum of the Hospice Saint-Roch in Issoudun. It follows the donation of a large India ink by Zao Wou-Ki in 2008, and then of the personal collection of the artist offered by his wife Françoise Marquet-Zao in 2015.

This third donation includes 353 prints and 27 illustrated books, thus making the museum a reference fund for Zao Wou-Ki’s engraved work. The Museum of the Hospice Saint-Roch now owns, together with the National Library of France (BnF), the most comprehensive collection of Zao Wou-Ki’s prints. It includes works realized by the artist after his arrival in France and his discovery in 1949 of Western engraving techniques until his last prints in the 2000s.

Sans titre – Untitled, 2000. Lithography, 75.3 x 63.35 cm

Issoudun, Musée de l’Hospice Saint-Roch, donation F. Marquet-Zao 2022. All rights reserved

All the techniques performed by the artist are represented: lithography, dry point, burin, etching and aquatint, serigraphy. Zao Wou-Ki always realized his own prints in printmaking studios and a very special attention was given to the technical side of his work. The donation thus includes engraving plates, intermediate or test plates annotated by the artist, some prints with different colors, chromatic ranges and decompositions.

Decomposition and plate for the Canto Pisan by Ezra Pound, 1972

Etching and aquatint, 40.7 x 25.6 cm

Issoudun, Musée de l’Hospice Saint-Roch, donation F. Marquet-Zao 2022. All rights reserved

Zao Wou-Ki has illustrated some forty illustrated books during his whole life, illustrating older texts such as Arthur Rimbaud’s Illuminations but also collaborating with very important authors of the 20th Century – René Char, Henri Michaux, François Cheng, André Malraux, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Roger Caillois, Yves Bonnefoy among others. The donation, which includes 27 illustrated books therefore reflects this important aspect of his work.

An exhibition scheduled from June 17th to September 10th 2023, will also be the occasion for a presentation to the public of the works included in this exceptional donation.