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Artists›Zao Wou-Ki

Zao Wou-Ki

?–2013

DrawingFiguration

Representation

None documented

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90%

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• Figuration

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Selected Institutional Exhibitions

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Prints from Europe and Japan; Etchings by Matisse

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1955

About

Why this artist matters now

Zao Wou-Ki was a Chinese-French painter and draughtsman who developed a lyrical abstraction bridging Eastern calligraphy and Western modernism. Born in Shanghai in 1920, he moved to Paris in 1948, where his practice synthesized gestural mark-making with controlled spatial composition. His drawings and paintings employ a restrained palette of blacks, greys, and earth tones, layering delicate lines and washes that suggest landscape and figuration without representing them directly. He worked across paper and canvas until his death in 2013.

Source: Sothebys · Trust score: 100% · Updated 1mo ago

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art Cleveland Museum of Art Museum of Modern ArtNew York

Canonical record

Artworks (32)

WattsOS

01.04.97

1997 · Oil on canvas

44 7/8 × 57 1/2 in. (114 × 146 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

WattsOS

Untitled

1992 · Black ink on Asian paper mounted to a secondary support of western paper

42 in. × 40 7/8 in. (106.7 × 103.8 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sans titre (Untitled)

1980 · Brush and ink on paper

26 1/2 x 27 1/8" (67.1 x 69.0 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

WattsOS

Untitled

1967 · color lithograph

Sheet: 30.8 x 45.7 cm (12 1/8 x 18 in.); Image: 22.9 x 30.8 cm (9 x 12 1/8 in.)

Cleveland Museum of Art

WattsOS

Fire in the Sky (Le Feu dans le ciel)

1965 · Lithograph

Image: 23 5/16 × 14 15/16 in. (59.2 × 38 cm) Sheet: 30 1/16 × 22 3/16 in. (76.4 × 56.4 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

WattsOS

LXII

1963 · color lithograph

Paper: 65.1 x 50.5 cm (25 5/8 x 19 7/8 in.)

Cleveland Museum of Art

Untitled

1956 · Lithograph

composition: 15 1/4 x 25 5/16" (38.8 x 64.3cm); sheet: 19 3/4 x 25 13/16" (50.1 x 65.5cm)

Museum of Modern Art

WattsOS

CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ DE L'OEUVRE GRAVÉE ET LITHOGRAPHIÉE DE ZAO WOU-KI, 1949-1954

1954 · 1 soft ground etching and engraving (supplementary plate inserted between pages 2 and 3), printed in black

plate 6 7/16 x 4 3/8" (16.3 x 11.1 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

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In collection

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In collection

Cleveland Museum of Art

In collection

Museum of Modern Art

New York, US

Record

Exhibitions and timeline

Group Exhibition Prints from Europe and Japan; Etchings by Matisse

New York · 1955