Oil on canvas

47×57 cm. 18 1/2×22 1/2 in.

Signed in English and Chinese on bottom right; signed in English and dated on the reverse
PROVENANCE
Galerie Pierre Loeb, Paris
Important Private Collection, USA
Thence by descent from the above
16 Dec 2020, Sotheby's Paris Autumn Auction, Lot 18
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Foundation Zao Wou-Ki

Leaping in Celebration, Embracing Boundless Expansion
Great Ship Entering a Harbour - A Crystallization of Zao Wou-Ki's Long Journey and Return

"Over the past five years, a Chinese painter has risen to fame in the international art world. At just 33 years old, he has held exhibitions in Paris, London, Rotterdam and Rome, with all of his works sold at two solo exhibitions in New York. He has already become an internationally recognized master of art ... critics highly praise as the poetic crystallization of Chinese and modern European art."

The above quote is from an extensive report published in the February 1954 issue of Life magazine in the United States, titled Artist from the East - Zao Wou-Ki. The article featured four of Zao's works, three of which were painted in 1952. During this period, the artist's paintings used light and agile black lines against a dreamy, misty backdrop of colour, depicting scenes such as eye-catching church landscapes, wilderness scenes, and still life objects. This also indicates that the first major success in Zao's creative journey after arriving in France in 1948 and spending years in tireless exploration first started to bear fruit in 1952. At this point, the artist had already developed his own highly distinctive style, which quickly gained him recognition from the academic world and art collectors. It was in that year Zao Wou-Ki was invited to hold solo exhibitions at the Patti Birch Gallery in New York and the Main Street Gallery in Chicago. In Paris, he signed a two-year contract with the renowned Galerie Pierre. At that time, Zao lit up the sky like a brilliant comet and left his mark on Europe and the United States.

The Boundless World:
Emergence of Classic Style in a Golden Age

Today, Zao Wou-Ki is recognised as a giant of Chinese abstract painting and his works can be found in the collections of more than 150 major art museums and institutions around the world, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Centre Pompidou and the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum and the Tate in London, and the Ishibashi Museum of Art in Tokyo. Furthermore, in the 1968 edition of History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture & Photography detailing the progress of modernism from the 19th to 20th centuries, compiled by renowned American art historian Harvard Arnason, a must-read work for anyone interested in the history of modern art of the past 20 years or more, the only Chinese artists featured are Zao Wou-Ki and I. M. Pei. This affirms Zao's elevated status in terms of post-World War II modern art development in both the East and West. In this spring auction, we are honoured to present Great Ship Entering a Harbour, an important work rich in a wide range of elements and imbued with an epic composition, created during the artist's first creative peak in 1952.

A Journey around the World:A Vehicle for Youth and Dreams

"In 2004, Zao Wou-Ki visited Hangzhou alone. I accompanied him on a visit to the old site of Hangzhou Academy of Art. Sitting on the balcony of the former academy, watching the boats on the lake, with the lake and mountains blending into one he laughed heartily like a child. Perhaps the memories of his youth were resurfacing in his mind. The West Lake was calm and faintly hazy, the reflections on the water imbued with the delicate richness of time."
——Xu Jiang, former dean of the China Academy of Art

The ship motif plays a unique and special role in the life and paintings of Zao Wou-Ki. On the one hand it was the family business of his childhood friend T. C. Tung, one of the "seven global shipping magnates." On the other, it also brings back memories of his life as a student at Hangzhou Academy of Art, where he would often look out onto the West Lake and watch bustling scenes of ships sailing and the rippling water around them, while also recalling memories of rowing on the lake with a childhood female friend. In 1948, a ship also carried him on a 36-day journey to the capital of world art Paris. Indeed, it was in that year that the "ship" became an important symbol in the artist's painting vernacular.

A review of Zao's works in his representational period from 1948-1953, shows that the ship motif appears in 41 paintings, highlighting the extent to which he was enamored with the theme. Of these, 15 were completed during his first creative period in 1952. At that time, the artist had already left Paris to travel across Europe and the culture, historical architecture, and natural landscapes he encountered "drove him into a creative frenzy and everything amazed him," according Fondation Zao Wou-Ki director Yann Hendgen. "In early 1952, Zao was invited by Belgian collector Philippe d'Arschot to Antwerp, where he was deeply fascinated by the mist over the harbour, the interplay of ships, and the dance of the cranes and this became a major focus of his paintings that year." It is against this unique background that Great Ship Entering a Harbour was painted. The work is imbued with the artist's youthful memories and signifies the long journey on which he embarked to become an artist of global renown, as well as the way in which he developed a new creative vision based on the past. The work was owned for decades by two generations of important private collectors in the United States and was later obtained by a prominent private collector in Asia, making its current availability at auction a rare opportunity for art lovers.

Rich Harvest and Returning Home:The Fusion, Reform and Remaking of Eastern and Western Aesthetics

"In the early 1950s, I spent long periods observing church murals in cities during my travels and tried to understand how best to create three-dimensional space on a flat surface, analyzing the arrangement of figures. After returning from my travels, I painted many works with landscape, building and nature motifs. These were also filled with figures and animals that were not mere objects of painting, but rather elements that contributed to the harmonious unity of the universe."
——Zao Wou-Ki

Antwerp is an economic and cultural centre for Belgium, as well as the second largest port in Europe. The area is famous for its high-volume freight shipping, oil refineries and is also the largest center for diamond processing and trade in the world. The climate is typically rainy throughout the year. In Great Ship Entering a Harbour, Zao depicts a bustling scene of merchant ships moving in and out of the harbour. At that time, he had boldly moved away from rough brushwork emphasising the three-dimensionality nature of objects in the style of Paul Cézanne he employed in 1946 and no longer pursued the traditional Western perspective standard. Instead, the fog over the Port of Antwerp naturally reminded him of the misty, cloud-filled world of Song Dynasty landscape painting in China and the freehand aesthetics of the East. In this work, viewers can clearly see that after immersing himself in European culture for four years, Zao freed himself from the constraints of Eastern and Western traditions, returning to and reexamining the roots of his own traditions, inspired to develop a brand new and bold expression of artistic space. The artist ingeniously uses changes in color and the textured feel of Western oil painting to create a window that traverses past and present. The color, particularly the green hue of ancient Chinese bronzeware from the Shang Dynasty, (c. 1600 - c. 1046 BC) which Zao considered the most beautiful color in Chinese culture, is boldly contrasted with vibrant orange-red, echoing the "red spots and green rust" that develop on ancient bronze vessels over time. Through the blending, smudging and texture of colors, he creates a dreamlike hazy scene and breathes life into a breathtaking world.

If we concentrate on Zao Wou-Ki's use of black lines that evoke delicate willow branches, epigraphic and stone inscriptions, the artist brings to life the scenes he observes through freehand brushwork imbued with strength. He simplifies complexity by employing multiple horizons, depicting three spatial layers, reminiscent of the three worlds of Heaven, Earth and Mankind in a church mural, showcasing different times, spaces, and chronologies of events that exist parallel to each other. On the left of the first layer, a fully-loaded large freight ship is seen with a flag bearer guiding it toward the twin towers on the right. In the middle space, we see a resting fortress on the sea surface with cranes and forklifts working busily as if unloading containers, infused with the vitality of industrial civilization and commercial activity. On the right, we can see a person holding a telescope or reading a metre, looking into the distance, symbolizing exploration and anticipation of the future. In the top layer, three ships come together, their different sizes ingeniously alluding to depth and distance, while also creating a natural phonology. Through his rich attention to detail Zao weaves together a lively and dynamic world. The orange-red color resembles the rising sun or the rich and beautiful sunset, the mottled light bathing the painting in warmth and radiating an inner sense of hope. It is almost as if the joy of those returning home from a long journey is made concrete, creating a unique and moving charm.

As poet Henri Michaux, a friend of Zao, wrote in a 1952 solo exhibition preface: "As with something obfuscated, the trembling lines want to reveal but still cover up, seeming broken yet unbroken, depicting the pulse of daydreams on a leisurely stroll... Suddenly, the painting unfurls in an orchard of symbols, with a touch of the strange, joyfully trembling, with the festive atmosphere quietly rising, like the celebratory spirit unique to Chinese towns and villages." Great Ship Entering a Harbour perfectly and vividly showcases Zao Wou-Ki's long journey westward. It carries within it a rich harvest of recognition and honour, and like the great ship in the painting returning eastward, represents an important aesthetic turning point and achievement, replete with deep meaning and genuine emotion.

Price estimate:
HKD 7,000,000 - 9,000,000
USD 897,400 - 1,153,800