Oil on canvas

38.5×60 cm. 15 1/8×23 3/4 in

Signed in Chinese and English on bottom left signed and dated on reverse

LITERATURE
2007, Solo Exhibition of Chu Teh-Chun, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, p.114
2008, Chu Teh-Chun 88 Retrospective, National Museum of History, Taipei, p.97
2008, Chu Teh-Chun 88, Thin Chang Corporation, Taipei, p.50
EXHIBITED
10 – 25 Aug 2013, Derivations——Unlimited Crossing, Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei

PROVENANCE
Original collection of Switzerland publisher Nesto Jacometti
27 Nov 2011, Christie’s Hong Kong Autumn Auction, Lot 1102
Acquired by Asian owner from the above sale
Important Private Collection, Asia
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Archives Zao Wou-Ki, and will be included in the artist’s forthcoming catalogue raisonné prepared by Françoise Marquet and Yann Hendgen （Information provided by Foundation Zao Wou-Ki）.

A Love Poem to Paris
Sans Titre
An Early Classic by Zao Wou-ki

“I first set foot in France on April 1, 1948. It was a cold and clear day when I left Shanghai, the same as when we reached Marseilles. My whole family came to see me off ... My ambition at that time was just to go to Paris, learn more about painting, study painting, nothing else mattered.”
- Zao Wou-ki

In 1948, Zao Wou-ki had already graduated from Hangzhou Art Academy, but with his excellent results was persuaded to remain at the school as a teaching assistant. However, Zao dreamed of visiting Paris, the art capital of the world, like his teachers Lin Fengmian and Wu Dayu, where he could better learn about the spirit of Western art. In April 1948, he and his wife, Xie Jinglan, finally reached Paris after a 36-day sea journey. On arriving they took the car sent to meet them and headed to Montparnasse - the only place they could say in French and knew by name. This was also a place where Zao had heard many artists lived and so had no hesitation about finding a place to live and beginning his artistic journey of exploration there. As Zao had himself said, he wanted to “learn more about painting, study painting, ” nothing else mattered or was a problem.
On the day Zao arrived in Paris and for the next 18 months he visited the Louvre or another major museum every day, where he could view up close works of art he had only ever seen in newspapers, magazines and pictures. He read everything he could get his hands on, from the works of classical masters, to impressionist and modernist works, researching how artists interpreted space and color in their paintings and the strengths of different painters. For a period Zao was like a sponge, learning everything he could about European culture, while also reflecting on how best to develop his own artistic vocabulary. In addition to visiting museums and learning French, Zao spent as much time as possible painting and assiduously working to be part of the Parisian art world.
New-found Fame - Inspiration and Development of Lithographic Works
During the first two years in France, Zao Wou-ki chose not to paint in Chinese ink or engage in the calligraphy he learned from a very young age. This was a decision he made in order to avoid being pigeonholed as a stereotypical Asian artist in the West. To that end, Zao focused on oil painting and learned printing at Atelier Desjobert where he derived great pleasure from the detailed carved lines and chromatography of printing, produced an eight-piece set of works based on such motifs as landscapes and animals. Through these, we can sense that Zao gradually finds his own creative path. For example, the artist begins to combine his own observations of scenery, memories and imagination with the representational realism he learned in his early years in China, creating works rich in his own personal style and images. This is an approach that also extended to Zao’s oil paintings from 1949-1954. It was also as a direct result of these prints that Zao met renowned French poet Henri Michaux, who was so moved by the open space filled with images that he wrote eight poems in French to accompany the works, making this a joint project for the two men, which was published in book form and in 1950 exhibited at Galerie la Hune in Paris. Indeed, this mutual appreciation ensured Zao and Michaux became lifelong friends, the latter recommending him to some of the top gallery operators and art critics at that time. This ensured Zao Wou-ki soon became well known in France and led art dealer Pierre Loeb to become Zao’s agent in 1951, a relationship that lasted seven years. Renowned commentator and Swiss publisher Nesto Jacometti was also enamored with the world depicted in the artist’s paintings, so much so that he was collecting Zao’s works before he made a name for himself. In 1951, Jacometti organized two exhibitions of Zao’s print works at his art galleries in Bern and Geneva and in 1955 compiled and issued a collection of Zao Wou-ki’s prints. The Untitled painting auctioned at the spring auction comes from the collection of Nesto Jacometti - one of Zao’s earliest and keenest supporters.
Simplifying Complicated Natural Beauty
“The painting is almost monochrome, its content boundless and profound, ingeniously combining the inner worlds of the artist and the captured landscape, almost as if remade from memory, though the most eye-catching thing is the lines, because the images in the painting are condensed into a closely-knit framework and these seemingly carved lines, both sharp and general, can be used in multiple variations. The effect of mixing soft and hard elements is expressed through the arrangement of different pattern. However, we see only multiple lines winding through the landscape, guiding though their vitality never stops and the scope of differentiation is never sealed off. Despite the static nature of the landscape painted, these lines give viewers an impression of rhythmic speed as if ready to take flight at any moment.”
- Chinese-French writer François Cheng
Sans Titre was painted in 1951, Zao Wou-ki’s third year in France. In recollecting the period shortly after arriving in the country, Zao has noted how he was struck by how different the buildings were to those in China and the sense of freshness that gave him. As such, at that time he often uses his paintings to explore and observe the environment in which he lived, combined with self-transformation, imagination and his own ideas of aesthetics and this is the background to Sans Titre. In this piece, the artist deliberately reduces the color he uses to a bare minimum and takes black and white as the main hues, creating an effect reminiscent of the mist and profundity of his lithographs. The dark black lines in the painting, which seem to allude to stone in the same way as lines in copper engraving, break through the vast haziness, constructing a city on horizontal lines, with a domed church at the center and a plaza extending left and right, up and down as it opens up directly in front of the viewer. The copper-colored rubbing in the middle of the painting seems to show the corrosion of time and the copper-red like thread lines in the haze are akin to dotting a dragon’s eyes, in as much as they create a sense of contrast and vitality.
On closer inspection, there is a tower at the side of the domed building from which flies a flag and this provides the viewer with a point of reference, allowing us to examine the environment in which the artist lived at that time. As a result, it can be determined that Zao painted the Pantheon, a domed building located in the Latin quarter of Paris and the tower from the nearby Saint-Étienne-du-Mont. Zao Wou-ki presents a rough impression of complex buildings from an urban landscape, replacing complexity with simplicity, spirit through appearance, leaving only the most defining architectural lines of the two buildings and an open space. In the bottom left hand corner of the painting stands a tall thin figure, who waves his left hand as if elatedly greeting viewers and welcoming them on a shared journey into this world. Through this work we can imagine the culture of Paris and Europe as an open window and Zao Wou-ki employs his acute powers of observation as he enjoys exploring different possibilities. Everything the artist sees and feels each moment of every day can be a source of creative inspiration and against this backdrop Sans Titre truly is a love letter to Zao’s life in Paris.

Price estimate:
HKD: 4, 500, 000 - 7, 500, 000
USD: 576, 900 - 961, 500

Auction Result:
HKD: 5,310,000