Zao Wou-Ki’s travels. A Quest beyond Appearances
Yann Hendgen
Art Director of the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation, Co-Curator of Centennial Retrospective Exhibition of Zao Wou-Ki
First I would like to thank Mr. Gao Shiming, Mr. Yu Xuhong, and all the people at the China Academy of Art for this very long project of the Zao Wou-Ki exhibition at his alma mater and for organizing this important meeting.
Then, before speaking about the artist himself, I would just like to take some short time to present you the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation and its action. In 2012, before Zao Wou-Ki passed away, the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation has been created in Geneva, Switzerland. Our president, Mrs. Françoise Marquet-Zao, is the widow of the artist, and upon his will, his universal legatee and owner of his rights. I have been the assistant to Zao Wou-Ki since 2002, and I am now the Art Director of Zao Wou-Ki Foundation.
The Zao Wou-Ki Foundation does not own any works by the artist. Our main role at the Foundation is to support any cultural and artistic activities, to promote Zao Wou-Ki’s works, and to make it known in the widest possible way through exhibitions and publications. We are in charge of the archives of the artist which are the world’s most complete archives on his artistic and personal life. This allows us, then, to work on the catalogue raisonné of the paintings. We are also called upon to organize exhibitions, to collaborate with museums, like this one at the China Academy of Art. We frequently answer the questions of a lot of people, from museums, from collectors, from auction houses, journalists, etc. We are also here to take care of the works and to make certificates of authenticity to ensure that everything is in order with his works.
The European art as a model. 1935-1947
When Zao Wou-Ki was fifteen, he joined the School of Fine Arts in Hangzhou. He studied here from around 1935 to 1941, before becoming a professor. It was at the time the most modernist school of China, even if the trainings were largely traditional. As the teaching provided by his European professors stopped at the beginning of the 19th century, he looked for everything he could find concerning Western avant-gardes. He wanted to paint “in the Western style”, working on an easel with locally produced oil paintings. This was quite innovative at the time and also an iconoclastic approach, since oil painting was only taught in Hangzhou during the very last years of the students’ training.
Here you can see one of the very first paintings he did, which is presented in the exhibition, the Still Life with Apples, dated from 1935-1936. And you can find the comparison on the opposite, with the Still Life by Paul Cézanne. For Zao Wou-Ki, Cézanne was one of the most important European masters and a very important inspiration. You can imagine how difficult it could be for a Chinese artist just to find images of that kind of work, and to try to make something upon it, to try to copy it, to be inspired by it, and to train like Cézanne did.
His first trip results of a historical imperative: the advance of the Japanese troops forced the Hangzhou’s teachers and students to leave Hangzhou, and to flee the fighting in a long roaming of thousands of kilometers that lasted from November 1937 until the settlement in Chongqing in 1942, in southwest China. During that time, classes continued. You can see the very small painting dated 1941, which is an oil on wood. It has been created on wood because at that time Zao Wou-Ki could not find any canvas. But that also shows you that he kept on painting, even if he was not in Hangzhou but traveling to Chongqing. He once said about this painting that there is some influence by the Russian painter Marc Chagall, in the naive way of composition, the joy of the colors and freshness he wanted to put into that painting.
The oil painting Paysage Hangzhou that Zao Wou-Ki did in 1946 is a landscape of Hangzhou. You can also see in this painting the deep influence of Paul Cézanne, as Zao Wou-Ki tried to imitate somehow the touch of the impressionist painters.
Zao Wou-Ki was a very impatient student and desired to break up with Chinese art of his time that he judged in a way both decadent and sterile. That is why he wanted to complete his training with European and Western art.
On this family photograph you can see the whole Zao family. And hanging on the wall behind them, you can find the copy that Zao Wou-Ki made upon Cowper Madona by Raphael, a painting from the Italian Renaissance now in Washington. You can see that he did not only look at impressionist or modern works but also at very old masters from the Italian Renaissance. This is also certainly a deep influence of Lin Fengmian, his mentor and his teacher, who had himself a special interest for the Italian Renaissance and for the impressionists.
With this watercolor dated 1945, which is exhibited in the show, and with this ink dated 1948, you can see some other western influences: on the first he tried to imagine something about the Fauves period, and on the second, you can see a deep influence of portraits of women by Matisse.
Back in Shanghai in 1946, Zao Wou-Ki followed Lin Fengmian’s advice and announced to his father that he wanted to go to Paris for two years to keep on training. He received his father’s agreement, but had to wait one more year to have the French visa and the Chinese authorization to go to France.
But even if he wanted to go to France to make something about European art, you can see that China was rooted very deeply inside his creation, even if he rejected the Chinese tradition. In these two 1948 paintings, you can see a very strong influence of Chinese landscapes, but also of Chinese rubbings and print bricks of the Han period. He even tried to put some black patterns all around the painting just to imitate the Han rubbings. And you can find the same kind of pagodas, houses, and trees. For him it was a way to try to modernize what he found was the best part of China.
Installation in Paris and discovery of Europe. From figuration to abstraction. 1948-1956
In February 1948, Zao Wou-Ki succeeded in leaving for Paris on a boat, with his wife Lalan. After 36 days of travel, he arrived in Marseille, south of France, and then just immediately, he went to Paris. He settled in Paris with Lalan in April 1948, and one of his very first visits was at the Louvre Museum. There, he discovered a lot of paintings he had only seen in books and he made drawings and copies, as with this ink by Rembrandt, circa 1654-1655. It was a very deep inspiration as Rembrandt was a big master using ink, and for a Chinese painter, it is quite normal to admire and to want to make something about Rembrandt.
He also went to the Alliance française to learn French and to the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, where he wanted to improve and to make some nudes.
Zao Wou-Ki did his best to be integrated to the Parisian art scene. When he arrived, there were so many foreign artists in Paris. He did not want to be considered as a Chinese artist, but just as an artist like the others. He visited a lot of galleries and museums. He also decided to join the print studio of Edmond Desjobert, because he wanted to discover and practice the lithograph technique. There he made his first lithographs, which have been shown to the French poet Henri Michaux. The latter spontaneously decided to write some text upon it, which have been edited in the now famous book, Lecture par Henri Michauxde huit lithographies de Zao Wou-Ki. This was for him a very great help, because thanks to Henri Michaux, he could meet a lot of artists, but also some gallerists, as Pierre Loeb, who will be the first gallerist of Zao Wou-Ki in Paris in 1951.
The contract with Pierre Loeb was for Zao Wou-Ki the beginning of a long story, and his very first steps for being integrated in Paris. At Pierre Loeb’s gallery, he will find some very deep friends, like Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, and the Canadian painter Jean-Paul Riopelle, friendships that would last all his life. As the picture taken at the Desjobert studio shows, he met a lot of other painters there.
The picture of Zao Wou-Ki and Lalan taken by Dimitri Kessel in the studio of the rue du Moulin-Vert in 1953 shows a lot of paintings hanging on the walls. As you can see that it is a very, very small place. The studio was quite tiny, and that prevented Zao Wou-Ki to make huge paintings at that time. But during some 10 years, he has been the neighbor of Alberto Giacometti, who became a friend. Zao Wou-Ki has been inspired by the sculptures he saw in Giacometti’s studio or the figures you can see on a drawing that Giacometti gave to Zao Wou-Ki. This influence can clearly be seen in the detail of some lithographs, when comparing the bodies. As a matter of fact, Giacometti once gave to Zao Wou-Ki the advice not to become abstract but to remain figurative.
After 1950, Zao Wou-Ki traveled a lot and tried to discover Europe. He made, in a sense, his Grand tour. He went to the French Alps with his friend the painter Johnny Friedlaender. He, of course, went to Italy, as all the painters did in the previous centuries. He also went to Spain. During these trips, he discovered a lot of things. He always had sketchbooks with him, in which he created watercolors just to remember what he saw. This would be a reserve of motifs for his paintings when back in the studio.
During his travel in Italy in 1951, he went to Roma, Florence, Siena, Arezzo, Naples, Venice. Here you can see a page of this Italian sketchbook showing the Roman Coliseum. He has been deeply impressed by the Italian cities: he discovered that the church is in the center of each Italian city, and that the city is organized around it. In Italy he also discovered the Renaissance perspective. That’s what you can see in Venise (Piazza), a 1951 painting now in the Centre Pompidou. When he was in the French Alps but also in Tuscany, he said that viewing that kind of landscapes reminded him about Chinese landscapes. China was still in his mind.
In 1951, he traveled to Switzerland for an exhibition of his engravings and visited some museums in Bern. This trip would be a very important one as he discovered in real for the first time works by Paul Klee. He already knew works by Paul Klee because he studied it in Hangzhou. In 21.09.50, part of the Hangzhou exhibition, you can see a very strong connection with Klee as it is based on his work Ad Marginem dated 1930.
You can see how deep this influence is in this work. Seeing Paul Klee’s works in real made him realize that another way was possible in painting. You are not only forced to reproduce reality, but you can make something different. You can use signs, you can use different patterns that are not reality. You can invent a language that escapes the confines of the subject. Speaking about the influence of Paul Klee, he said: " In a way, my painting became unreadable. Still lifes, flowers and animals disappeared. I tried to find, with signs, something imaginary that would appear on almost monochrome backgrounds. (…) Then, little by little, the signs became shapes, the backgrounds became space. "
You can see that there is a deep connection and influence when comparing the small 1919 watercolor by Paul Klee that Zao Wou-Ki bought for his private collection and the painting Untitled (City of Pearl), created in 1952, also exhibited in Hangzhou. If Paul Klee used some western signs and western letters, Zao Wou-Ki decided to make it his own. He decided to draw inspiration from Chinese archaic characters from the divinatory engravings of the oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty, or from Chinese antique bronzes. But he did not want them to be readable. He invented signs and used it as a pattern without any sense, just for the design.
The painting Vent (Wind), dated 1954, is considered as his first abstract painting. Zao Wou-Ki described it as « the first painting that would not tell any story, but the evocation of the rustling of the leaves, or the mottling of the surface of the water under a passing breeze ». As his friend, François Cheng rightly pointed out, « abstraction, in Zao Wou-Ki’s work, does not mean “rejection of concrete reality” ».
If you see Stèle pour un ami, dated 1956, you can clearly identify the use of the signs. This painting has been created because he heard his friend Zhuang Huayue disappeared and has been killed - he discovered only years after that that in fact he was not dead. Zao Wou-Ki decided to create the painting in his memory, creating some kind of Chinese stele. This is one example of the very deep roots and very deep connection of Zao Wou-Ki to the Chinese world.
TheHommage à Chu-Yun, dated 1955, is another example of the Chinese background of Zao Wou-Ki at this time. Qu Yuan is the first great Chinese poet (around 340-278 BC). We can see that Zao Wou-Ki followed the tradition and the history of Qu Yuan: everything is blue and deeply connected with the Miluo river where Qu Yuan committed suicide. The artist also dated that painting the fifth day or the fifth month of 1955.
La Nuit remue (colère), a painting dated 1956, has been given by Zao Wou-Ki’s gallerist Samuel Kootz to the Art Institute of Chicago. This is the year Lalan quit him and this painting is in a way connected to this departure. Zao Wou-Ki said: « My painting became emotional because I displayed feelings and moods without shame. It was no longer necessary to find another subject. » Now he would paint only with what is inside of him.
Just before leaving Paris for a while, Zao Wou-Ki signed a new contract with the Galerie de France in Paris. There, he met old friends and found new ones, like the German painter Hans Hartung, or French artists like Alfred Manessier and Pierre Soulages. Here you can see some pictures of works that have been exchanged between these artists and Zao Wou-Ki. Friendship was very important for him.
Travels and discoveries. From New York to Hong Kong. His own abstraction. 1957-1970’s
In 1957, Zao Wou-Ki decided to leave France and to visit his brother Wou-Wai, in New Jersey, close to New York City. His brother settled in the United States in 1944. In New York, Zao Wou-Ki visited galleries and museums, met the main actors of abstract painting, and made deep connections with painters like Franz Kline, Philip Guston, Adolph Gottlieb, Saul Steinberg or James Brooks.
It has been a great discovery for him because at the time he left China, it was not a subject at all: New York did not exist as an art scene for him. He only wanted to go to Paris because for him the place to be was Paris, although he made friends with a lot American GI’s based there, like Sam Francis or Norman Bluhm. He was also friend with Joan Mitchell.
In 1957, he took advantage of being in New York to sign a contract with the famous gallerist, Samuel Kootz, who will diffuse his work in American museums and collections. In New York, Zao Wou-Ki will be really impressed with the size, the gestural and chromatic freedom, as well as the freshness of the American paintings.
After New York, Zao Wou-Ki decided to make a travel with his friends Pierre and Colette Soulages all over America, from Chicago to San Francisco, then to Hawaii, and then to Japan. They stayed for a while in Japan, which leads him to consider the tradition of China ink and Far Eastern calligraphy.
Zao Wou-Ki finally decided to settle alone in Hong Kong in early 1958 for nearly 6 months, as a visiting professor at the School of Fine Arts of New Asia College. In Hong Kong, he met his second wife, May. It was his first real way back to China, even if Hong Kong was not really mainland China.
Zao Wou-Ki and May went back to Paris in August 1958. In the autumn of 1959, he bought a new house and created a new studio that would allow him to paint larger paintings.
The 1960s have been a period of intense creation, but also of many trips with May. They came back to New York City nearly each year for exhibitions at the Kootz Gallery. Sam Kootz urging him to create larger paintings for American collectors and his new studio brought Zao Wou-Ki to make large size works. When looking at 1960’s paintings, one can see his new style and the influence of the American painting: huge formats, free movements, freshness.
Zao Wou-Ki moved on to painting the space. He exploded or concentrated his compositions, he used relations between colors, but also played with the softness of monochrome halftones. In a way, he became freer, as we can see with the very big Hommage to Edgard Varèse, now part of the Musée cantonal des beaux-arts in Lausanne. We are not connected to the Chinese world of signs anymore: this is something completely new, a new space, a new rhythm.
As a conclusion: the slow rediscovery of China after 1972
The early 1970s had been a hard period for Zao Wou-Ki, as his wife May’s illness became increasingly serious. For some time, Zao Wou-Ki sought refuge in his studio but he could hardly keep on painting with oil. He then followed his friend’s Henri Michaux advice: to reconnect with the technique of India ink. When he arrived in Paris, he had set ink aside in order not to be considered as a Chinese painter. He wanted to be considered as a painter above all and not as an exotic curiosity.
India ink became an essential element of his creation. He remembered the gestures learnt during his childhood with his grandfather. The more he played with ink, the more he rediscovered the power of the space and of the void. It changed his perception of space and modified his practice of oil painting.
When comparing the painting En mémoire de May, made just after May passed away, and some India ink of the same period, one can see the deep connection and influence of this technique.
May died in March 1972. Zao Wou-Ki came back to China right after, for the first time since 1948. He visited his family, and from then on, he would frequently return, as in 1975 to conduct his mother’s funeral.
In 1983, he had his first exhibition in mainland China in Beijing and Hangzhou, and in 1985, he gave classes here in Hangzhou. During these trips, he immersed himself in landscape, in a nature in which he found a new breath. It was for him the occasion to let China comes back again in its creation. But this would be another journey to develop.
As you have seen with the several speeches held in this symposium and in the exhibition itself, there are many ways to read and understand Zao Wou-Ki’s work.
One can believe he was only Chinese, one can believe he was French. One can imagine that his many trips from China to France, from France to New York City, New York City to Japan, Hong Kong, mainland China and so on, brought him to be a different painter. We can easily understand he was not only Chinese or not only French, because he did not want to be just that.
He was far more than that, and also far less: he just wanted to be a painter.
And to end this short presentation, I would rather prefer to use his own words: “Can you imagine that? It is through Paul Cézanne that I came to French art, through Paul Klee that I went back to abstract art. And it is Rembrandt’s washes that revived my will to take back Chinese brushes, Chinese paper, India ink. And people go on asking me if I am a Chinese painter.”
This is the speech Yann Hendgen delivered at the forum, "The Way Is Infinite: Zao Wou-Ki's World of Art", on September 20, 2023. This article is based on the audio record and approved by himself.
Some illustrations of Zao Wou-Ki's works in this article are slightly different with those in the speaking script due to copyrights.
All works by Zao Wou-Ki : ⓒ Zao Wou-Ki-ProLitteris, Zurich.
