Claud Monet, Gainstack Sun in the Mist , 1891 莫內《薄霧下的稻草堆》1891
Splendid and Magnificent Glow
Merging East and West, Morphing the Formless Zao Wou-Ki’s techniques culminated in the 1990s, manifesting “the consummation of artist and art with time,” the highest phase in traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy. He simplified the spatial composition and used brighter colors and light. He expressed the rhythms of nature and primitive universe in ways that appear unpremeditated. The loudest is not speech replete; the greatest has no shape concrete. With simple yet bold image, he created a unique style that is tranquil, peaceful and philosophical, where heaven and human are as one. Georges Duby, member of Académie française commented, “In the composition, it seems that the Chinese elements reappear as well. They can be found in the arrangement of the plastic components; in the placement of the void in the center of the canvas, free of confining edges; in the fact that although the work is contracted over an opposition between plentitude and vacuity, between the roughness, the weight, the
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darkness, the pungent, the massive, represented by the mountain, the rivers, the earth in classical Chinese painting, and the effusion, the haze, the breathe of life, represented in the Chinese tradition by restless waters, the sky, the clouds and the mist, such opposition still conveys a sense of harmony thanks to the balance maintained between all of the confronting components.” Zao’s spatial composition turned subdued and ingenious with supple, elegant and drenched colors, creating a sense of lyrical mystique in the pursuit of a universe in which his spirit roamed.
Boundless and Poised, beyond Void and Airiness 1996 marked the eve of Zao Wou-ki’s 50th year in France. It was a spectacular journey in life that spanned half a century. There were ups and downs. However, in the breadth of his mind and wisdom, they transformed into the vivid colors of 04.09.96, in which Zao moved from the “concentrated” to the “dispersed”. The brush moves outward without a focal point, nor a vanishing point. Even the void