In November 1999, Lin & Keng Gallery presented Zao Wou-Ki 1948–1999 Retrospective Exhibition. Zao Wou-Ki and his wife, Françoise Marquet, attended the opening of the exhibition at the gallery. Featuring more than twenty works created between 1948 and 1999, the exhibition traced the development of Zao Wou-Ki’s artistic practice across different periods of his career.
Prior to the Taipei exhibition, Zao Wou-Ki: 60 Years of Paintings, 1935–1998 had toured Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, and Lin & Keng Gallery had also assisted with the organization of the related exhibition activities. For the Taipei presentation, Zao Wou-Ki travelled from Paris to Taiwan especially for the occasion and attended the opening on November 13 with his wife.
The exhibition focused on works produced between 1948 and 1999, tracing Zao Wou-Ki’s artistic development from his early explorations after arriving in Paris, through the influence of Paul Klee, and toward a renewed engagement with Chinese calligraphy, writing, and traditional art. Through these encounters, he gradually developed his distinctive language of abstract painting. The more than twenty works spanning different periods revealed the transformations in his artistic ideas and formal vocabulary over five decades.
From Hangzhou to Paris, and from figuration and symbolic forms toward abstraction, Zao Wou-Ki continuously explored the relationship between Western modern art and Chinese calligraphy and traditional artistic traditions, gradually establishing a distinctive artistic language of his own. By bringing together works from different periods, the retrospective presented an artistic trajectory shaped by the sustained dialogue between Eastern and Western cultures.
To accompany the exhibition, Lin & Keng Gallery published the exhibition catalogue Zao Wou-Ki 1948–1999 Retrospective Exhibition in November 1999. The catalogue is now documented in the gallery’s publication archive.
