Zao Wou-Ki, one of the most illustrious representatives of lyrical abstraction, is an artist who succeeded in merging his Chinese heritage, with his poetic ambition of Western lyric abstraction, explains Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin at Art Geneva 2020.

“His very first concern is to break away from the Academy. He does not want to do appropriate ‘chinoiserie’ in his works. His gaze very naturally turns to France towards his contemporaries; Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso. It starts with the refusal of academicism but also with a desire for metamorphosis,” de Villepin says.

In 1948, Zao Wou-Ki embarked on the famous ‘grand tour’ to France like many of his contemporary Chinese artists. As soon as he arrived in Paris, Zao Wou-Ki rushed to the Louvre and the Musée de l'Orangerie. He was drawn by the works of Claude Monet (Zao produced a triptych in his homage in 1991, inspired by the Nymphéas).

Yann Hendgen, art historian and former assistant to Zao, explained in 2010 on Canal Académie: "Zao Wou-Ki loves the play of water and reflections. Already at the time of Hangzhou, he was fascinated by the multiplicity of space on the surface of the water, the lightness of light or its thickness between the lace and the sky. Perhaps in Monet's painting, he found bridges that he liked and that allowed him to move forward. (…) Basically, what fascinates him about Monet is the treatment of color, light, its decomposition by the touch or the play of water and aquatic elements, something very poetic which touches a lot.”

“What I was looking to see was the space, it’s stretching, and its contortions and the infinite complexity of a blue in the tiny reflection of a leaf on the water,” Zao Wou-Ki previously said in a public interview.

“At the Louvre and for many months he looked painting by painting and copied a certain number of works so as to soak up the reality of Louvre when he had known only images, postcards,” de Villepin says.

Here in Paris, he will grow up with Nicolas de Staël, Hans Hartung, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Georges Mathieu, Pierre Soulages, in an atmosphere of emulation and friendship. Instead of settling with landscape or portrait paintings that worked at the time he refused to produce the past. To obtain over the years, essential tools; the vibration of color, the rhythm of space, the notion of fullness and emptiness in the depth of his art, de Villepin said.

We see that he holds four lines which are in my opinion important, de Villepin argues. The first is the thread of modernity, from Cimabue to Rembrandt, from Cézanne to Picasso. The second is that of gratitude to Paul Klee. Paul Klee was a key source of influence in his art as he allowed him to conciliate the sign and meaning between the East and the West, allowing him to rediscover his own culture. At the beginning of his artistic life, Zao Wou-Ki produced many figurative works but he got tired of them and sought to innovate, to paint differently, which led him to more abstract paintings often inspired by Klee. The third thread is that of truth, present in the vibration of his work and elements of nature such as the wind and dust – symbols apparent in his works from 1953 to 1957.

“I was struck by the intensity at which he scrutinized what he was looking at in his painting. Between the eye and the hand, the link was absolute. The sighted artist shows how much he sees behind the invisible of the abstract,” de Villepin said.

The last thread to mention is the thread of freedom. There is an incredible freedom that is unraveled at the end of its life. Important to understand the process of creating work, is to see the part of a real laboratory at play. “He needs these concrete walls to immerse himself in his work even to see this invisible. Through the chaos, the canvas comes to life.” de Villepin said.

In May 1968, at the time of the great French national strike, he will create a poster for the students revolting. “He will write a very beautiful poster streaked with light and which will have for a slogan that he chooses ‘alive first: art as a conquest, art as a rescue, art to save yourself, to save the world.”

For Zao Wou-Ki the adventure of art is not without friendship and fraternity and he says it very clearly. “I love my friends like I take care of breakfast every morning while drinking good-looking, orange and orchid tea from my dining room,” he previously said in an interview. He is in harmony with all men and women.