Zao Wou-Ki

Zao Wou-Ki enrolled in the Hangzhou National School of Art in 1935, studying under Professor Wu Dayu. In December 1947, he held an exhibition at the Sun Company Art Gallery in Shanghai and moved to France for further studies the following year. In 1950, he began participating in the Salon de Mai, and two volumes of his prints were published simultaneously. He commenced his artistic career in France in 1951, thereafter regularly exhibiting his works at the Salon d'Automne and the Salon de Mai. He passed away in Switzerland in 2013.

The creative trajectory of Zao Wou-Ki is an evolution from figuration to lyrical abstraction, centered on the search for a balance between Eastern spirit and Western order. During the 1940s and 1950s, his artistic style began to transform. Early works such as the 1945 Untitled were born at the unique historical juncture as World War II was drawing to a close, where figures, trees, and light-shadows constructed a poetic Eden. Street Entertainers (1945), created in the same year and later donated to major institutions by Sin-May Roy (the daughter of his second wife, May Zao, 1930–1972), also demonstrates his avant-garde experimental consciousness at the time. Following the inspiration he drew from Paul Klee in 1951, Zao turned toward complete abstraction, transforming natural imagery into rhythmic symbols and colors. He once described his paintings as becoming "illegible," presenting an imaginative, calligraphy-like spiritual vehicle.

Recently, M+ in Hong Kong is presenting Zao Wou-Ki: Measuring the Light (December 2025 to May 2026), an exhibition featuring both his oil paintings and prints. Other landmark solo exhibitions include The Way is Infinite: Centennial Retrospective Exhibition of Zao Wou-Ki at the Art Museum of China Academy of Art (2023), L'espace est silence at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris (2018), and the Zao Wou-Ki Retrospective at the Museo d'Arte della Città di Lugano (2013).

Zao Wou-Ki's masterpieces are held in the permanent collections of prestigious institutions worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Tate in the United Kingdom; as well as the National Gallery Singapore; the National Museum of History in Taiwan; the National Art Museum of China in Beijing; the Taipei Fine Arts Museum; the Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico; and the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts.