Postcards and Limited Edition New Year Card

8.8 x 13.8 cm. （A）； 10.5 x 14.8 cm. （B）； 10.5 x 15 cm.（C）； 10.1 x 14.8 cm. （D）； 13.3 x 22.2 cm. （E）3 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. （A）； 4 1/8 x 5 7/8 in. （B）； 4 1/8 x 6 in. （C）；4 x 5 7/8 in. （D）； 5 1/4 x 8 3/4 in. （E）

A. Postcard, executed in 1961
From Zao Wou-ki and May Chan in Paris, France to friend Mario Praissnos
Content: New year wish 1961 in French. May Chan and Zao Wou-ki signed in Chinese and English
B. Postcard, executed in 1972
From Zao Wou-ki in Beijing to friend Mario Prassinos
Content: Greetings in French, signed in Chinese and English
C. Postcard, executed in 1957
From Zao Wou-ki in New Jersey, U.S.A to friend Mario Prassino
Content: Greetings in French, signed in Chinese and English
D. Postcard, executed in 1960
From Zao Wou-ki in Le Corse, France to friend Mario Prassinos, executed in 1960
Content: Hand Drawings of two families
E. Limited Edition New Year Card, executed in 1959
Numbered, signed in Chinese and English on bottom of the work

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, France
Private Collection, Asia

The Testimony of Friendship
The way I cherish friendship resembles how every day, at breakfast, I always drink tea while carefully caring for my potted landscapes. I cultivate friendship because I need to be in harmony with the outside world. The friends I made after 1949 are loyal and trustworthy. They helped me take root in France so that I no longer want to go back to China.
Zao Wou-Ki
Since Zao Wou-Ki came to France in 1948, the free and unrestrained atmosphere of Paris helped him make many good friends. In addition to exchanging artistic ideas together, they deeply cared for one another, which brought warmth to Zao's expatriate life. During our auctions, we will present a rare collection of postcards and greeting cards （Lot 140）, two letters （Lot 141）, and five books with inscriptions （Lot 142） that illustrate the communication between Zao and his friends, providing an extensive testimony to their relationship.
The four postcards from Lot 140 were sent by Zao Wou-Ki to Mario Prassinos from France, New Jersey, and Beijing between 1957 and 1972. Prassinos was born in Turkey in 1916, and he moved to France when he was six years old. His works had surrealist characteristics, and both he and Zao were represented by the Galerie de France. Prassinos was five years older than Zao. The two artists kept no secrets from each other, and their families often met. On one of the postcards, one can see New Year greetings written by Zao Wou-Ki and his then-wife, Chan May-Kan （May Zao）. Even when travelling, they did not forget about their friend. Another postcard features the capitalized French word for friendship, amitié, depicted by Zao as three human figures, with the names “May” and “Wou-Ki” on the top as well as “Mario” and the names of Prassinos' wife and daughter on the bottom. Among them, there are three vivid and lovely little hands representing the friendship that connected them.
The pieces from Lot 141 are two letters. One of them was written to Chere Lo, Prassinos and Zao's friend, in 1957. In the letter, Zao Wou-Ki confessed to the feelings of loneliness and melancholy that occasionally appeared in his life and expressed his hopes for meeting in the close future. Another letter was written in 1980 to James Sweeney, a well-known American curator who was in charge of The Guggenheim. Here, Zao sends his greetings to Sweeney and his family, mentions a gift to Sweeney, one of his albums edited by Jean Lemaire, and points out that his work Mistral, currently in Guggenheim's collection, was mentioned in the book. These letters are highly valued, historical testimonies to Zao Wou-Ki's frequent exchanges with curators from world-famous art galleries in the 1980s.
The five albums of Zao Wou-Ki from Lot 142 all have the artist's inscriptions on the inside pages. Four of them were a gift to Sweeney, and the majority of them are now out of print. The fifth book, published by the Grand Palais in Paris, was Zao's gift to Henri Michaux, a French poet and his cherished friend, and it features a personal inscription for him. The fact that both artists had jointly published Lecture de huit lithographies de Zao Wou-Ki adds further significance to the fifth book.

Price estimate:
HKD: 55,000 - 80,000
USD: 7,000 - 10,200

Auction Result:
HKD : --