This catalogue offers an immersion in Zao Wou-Ki's works on paper, Chinese ink and watercolors, covering 60 years of creation from 1948 to 2009. Erik Verhagen's selection follows the artist's career from the first figurative drawings and abstract composition studies of the 1960s, through the rediscovery of Indian ink in the 1970s to the artist's final works featuring large color washes.
Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at Kamel Mennour Gallery, Paris, from February 28 to April 13, 2019, and Kamel Mennour Gallery, London, from March 1 to 23, 2019.
Widely regarded as one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Chinese-French painter Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013) moved to Paris from Shanghai in his formative years and became an exemplar of the global scope of Modern Abstraction. While he initially moved away from Chinese traditions, in the 1970s, he experienced a reconciliation and his experimentations in painting combined Eastern and Western techniques to unprecedented success.
