60 Years of Zao Wou-Ki’s Painting: A Retrospective Exhibition: Zao Wu-Ki solo exhibition

Among the world’s renowned contemporary artists, Zao Wou-Ki is one who has been widely known and deeply respected by Chinese artists. Born in Beijing, China, he studied and later taught at the Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, where he was engaged in both artistic creation and education. From the 1970s onward, he returned to China on numerous occasions, where his family, friends, and students remained. Yet what is even more remarkable is the outstanding achievement he attained on the Western art scene. Western art critics have hailed his art as a “treasure of the French galleries” and described him as “an artist from the East who reached the summit of the Western art world.” Chinese artists, meanwhile, have been struck by his extraordinary ability to so deftly reconcile the spiritual traditions of Eastern and Western cultures, opening up a new realm of modern art endowed with remarkable vitality and individuality.

In 1948, Mr. Zao Wou-Ki settled in Paris, and in 1964 he became a French citizen. Over more than half a century, beginning in Paris, he extended his artistic practice across Europe and the United States. His original works were relatively seldom seen in mainland China in the past. The 60 Years of Zao Wou-Ki’s Painting: A Retrospective Exhibition offers an opportunity to trace the trajectory and achievements of more than six decades of his artistic exploration through more than one hundred original works, while also providing an insight into the essential characteristics and distinctive spirit of modern art.