Oil on canvas

24 x 33 cm. 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.

Signed in Chinese and English on bottom right; signed in English and dated on the reverse
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist by original collector
3 Oct 2017, Christie's London Autumn Auction, Lot 73
Important Private Collection, Asia

Note: This work will be included in the artist's forthcoming catalogue raisonné prepared by Françoise Marquet and Yann Hendgen (Vol. II) (Information provided by Foundation Zao Wou-Ki)

Whirling Lights, Gentle Brushwork, Boundless Scenes
'12.05.60' -- A Major Work by Zao Wou-Ki

Zao Wou-Ki was one of the first Chinese artists to achieve success and fame overseas. Moreover, his long-term involvement in the international art world ensured a close relationship between the creative language the artist employed and changes in mainstream western art over the past 50 years. In 1958, Zao signed a contract with Galerie de France, an influential Parisian art gallery, making him the only Asian painter represented by the gallery to date and establishing a foundation for him to become the first internationally renowned Western painting style Chinese artist. However, it was the Eastern traditions integral to Zao's artist's heritage that provided him with the cultural milieu needed to successfully expand his abstract works and be the “first person to introduce the world to the artistic conceptualization of Chinese painting.”

International Fame, Brilliant Pioneer

In the 1960s, Zao achieved the first peak in his artistic career. It was in this period that he incorporated a more diverse range of cultural elements into his work, developing brushwork that embraced abstract lines, sculpture, calligraphy and ink painting, representing a major leap forward in his art. In 1960, Zao had just finished a solo exhibition tour of the United States, Europe and Asia that had been an unprecedented success. From 1960-1965, he held solo exhibitions at Galerie de France and the Kootz Gallery in New York, with an increasing number of people paying attention to him in the Western-led art world. Art historians have highly praised Zao's paintings in this era, including renowned French art historian Pierre Schneider who said: “The works of Zao Wou-Ki in the 1960s had greater depth and richness of color than his earlier works, more ingeniously depicting his temperament and special nature.” Based on his tireless exploration of abstract art, Zao gradually developed his own distinctive graphic structure and style, showcasing the close relationship between the vocabulary of the times and national sentiment in a way that was irresistible and officially launched the artist's “glorious '60s.”

In this period, Zao named his works after the day on which they were completed, thereby breaking with the limits imposed on painting content and interpretation by more traditional titles. These days, when any of the artist's works from the 1960s appear on the market they attract huge interest and have continued to set new sales records. In this context, 12.05.60, which was completed in 1960, is an important work that marked the beginning of a new and brilliant art world.

A Meticulously Constructed and Boundless Universe

In 12.05.60, Zao Wou-Ki combines Eastern calligraphy and abstract language while also moving from graphic to spatial expression. As such, it is often said that his creative process represents an artistic focal point imbued with the Zeitgeist of the times. The interplay of green and yellow imbues the work with a sense of tranquility and vitality, almost as if the artist binds the colors and light tightly together. At the center of the painting, the symbols Zao used in his earlier works are transformed into layers of curled, brisk, densely packed lines, crafting a unique visual expression that echoes “the complementarity of black and white.” The rough and densely packed black and yellow lines break through the smooth undercoat, while maintaining a close dominant-subordinate relationship with it. This ensures the work not only has a strong “painted nature” but also a powerful cohesiveness in the abstract context of impermanent change. Zao noted: “Once there is a whole, then I seek out change.” The overlapping strokes are imbued with the image appeal of the artist's friend Alberto Giacometti, revealing the spiritual considerations behind the world of representation, as the fine and sharp brushwork gives form to imagined things and then crashes them together. The artist focuses on these ideas magnifying their definition like a photographer and this creates a visual center to the piece that is simultaneously antagonistic and balanced, as he constructs his own exquisite “universe.”

Images Built on Spirit – Perfect Abstract Poetry

Discussing his artistic works from the 1960s, Zao Wou-Ki said: “At that time there were already no technical barriers, I was able to follow my heart and paint freely. But I always had to wrack my brains when it came to spatial expression – I gave myself completely to the work, not to fill it up but to breathe life into it.” Moreover, it is exactly this highlighting of Eastern elements, beyond avant-garde abstract concepts, that imbue Zao's works with an energy that is independent from and superior to the abstract paintings of his Western peers.

In 1959, Zao Wou-Ki bought an old warehouse in Paris and installed windows only in the roof so the natural light cascaded downwards onto the center of his painting studio, an arrangement that brought to mind the infinite meaning of ink and blank space in Chinese landscape scroll paintings. The idea was to enhance the spatial isolation and thereby stimulate Zao's boundless creative inspiration. In the central area of 12.05.60 the gradual change in combinations of green, yellow and black line hues and color scale, creates visual spatial depth in the two dimensional construct. At the same time, the change in the thickness of lines is akin to that of Chinese calligraphy, creating a surging kinetic energy of accumulated inner sentiment and flow of time. The saturated of yellow lines pass back and forth randomly through the overlapping brushstrokes in the dark colors, reflecting the glittering splendor as they continually contract and expand like a beating heart emitting powerful spiritual energy. The alternating yellow and green colors create a landscape concept reminiscent of a mountain forest on an autumn day that reveals a boundless purity. In addition, the “accumulated” brush strokes at the center of the work are like traditional “Po Bi” and “Sui Bi” calligraphic strokes, free and easy in a way that weakens the solidity of line drawing depictions while also imbuing the texture of the painting with vitality and changeability. In concert with the brushwork that informs the exuberant bright yellows and greens, this highlights the inner life energy of the colors themselves.

Price estimate:
HKD: 3,500,000 – 4,500,000
USD: 451,600 – 580,600

Auction Result:
HKD: 4,956,000