Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although there are slightly more pink hues to the white paint in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals small networks of very stable and hairline drying cracks towards the centre of the left edge, and to the centre of the top right quadrant which appears to have been stabilised and fluoresces under ultraviolet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Born in Beijing, Zao Wou-Ki studied under the great master Lin Fengmian at the Hangzhou National College of Art.  After graduating in 1941, Zao remained at the college to teach painting. Zao left for Paris in 1947, where he befriended many well-known art dealers and artists.  His friendships with Henri Michaux, Pierre Loeb, Paul Klee, Franz Kline and Joan Miró had lasting effects on his style and artistic career.  He held his first solo exhibition abroad at the Galerie Creuze, Paris, in 1949.  His work was regularly exhibited at Kootz Gallery in New York and the Galerie de France in Paris throughout the 1950s and 1960s.  As his oeuvre developed, Zao Wou-Ki became proficient in the use of colour and brushstrokes. In these two exemplary paintings from the 1990s, his work has reached an apex of fully lyrical expression, carefree spontaneity and light-hearted sentiment while existing in the Chinese literati tradition.  Zao continued to gain recognition in the 1990s across the international art world. In 1993, he was made a Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur by President François Mitterrand and the Paris Mayor at that time, Jacques Chirac presented Zao Wou-Ki with the Grande Médaille Vermeil de la Ville de Paris. The following year, he was awarded the Praemium Imperiale Award of Painting of Japan, confirming that Zao had attained recognition of his outstanding contributions throughout the global art world and solidifying his importance in the history of art.  

Painted in 1991, 10.01.91 presents a Chinese poetic landscape. Through Zao's skill with colour and skillful blurring technique, the vermilion sunset in the upper right portion of the canvas conveys the transitory changes of a magnificent universe.  The flowing intertwined black lines in the lower portion of the painting display Zao's freedom of expression.  There is a passionate vibrancy in this canvas that is a natural gift of the artist and affirms his devotion to art as a means for expressing the powerful vastness of nature and the power of the painter to convey this magnitude.  As Dominique de Villepin notes, "enthusiasm dwells in Zao Wou-Ki's paintings. It is some sort of communication with the world, an extraordinary union between soul and matter. In his paintings, creative strength never parts from life itself. On both sides of the canvas are spun the threads of related experiences. They cross and interpenetrate, without ever blending......Here, it is spell, song of the very principle of nature." (Dominique de Villepin, Ed., Into the Maze of Lights, Zao Wou-Ki, Hong Kong 2010, p. 37)

Zao Wou-Ki begins to title his works after their completion dates from 1958 onward, leaving interpretation open to the viewer's own imagination. His work is imbued with the strong vivacity with which he records his life experiences. In the 1990s, Zao incorporated more Chinese literati art aesthetics to express the mood and the spirit of his work along with the changes of his state of mind.  In the second example 28.12.99, the white hues in the central register of the canvas can be seen as a wide river diagonally passing through - a classic compositional arrangement "One River; Two Banks" in Chinese landscape art achieved by creating and separating the background from the foreground.  Zao inherits and personalizes the aesthetics of the Chinese painting masters Huang Gongwang and Ni Zan from the Yuan Dynasty to depict depth and perspective. The dynamic black and blue brushstrokes are strong and rhythmic and the sheer beauty of nature and the powerful energy of this seminal painting draw the viewer into the composition and to the psyche of the artist.  The architect and friend of Zao Wou-Ki, I. M. Pei commented on the artist's work, "they are endless possibilities; the chaos before the world begins; a way that leads us into our origins but never to the end; a world between tangible and intangible that is not fully constructed with doubt and uncertainty; the last wonderland before the rules are made." (Zao Wou-Ki and Françoise Marquet, Eds., Autoportrait, Taipei 1992, p. 167)