Beschreibung:

Watercolour on paper - Sig. '79 - 39,2 x 57,9 cm (sheet)
Remarks Kunstforum Schelderode held a personal exhibition Zao Wou-Ki in 1972 and published an art pocket in 1977 by Freddy De Vree, dedicated to Zao Wou-Ki Literature To be included in the archives of the Fondation Zao Wou-Ki Provenance Kunstforum, Schelderode (Albert van Wiemeersch), acquired there by the present owner in 1998 ZAO WOU-KI - BALANCED CHAOS Attraction, abstraction, confusion, but still a distant feeling of recognition: Zao Wou-Ki's atmospheric composition is a mental landscape immersed in light and color that encourages contemplation. Depicted seems an all-embracing life energy overwhelming with its universal timelessness. The inherent spontaneity and transparency of watercolor enables this work's smooth and fluent elaboration. The particular way in which colors blend with the sheet perfectly visualizes amorphous elements of nature such as fog and light. From the middle bottom, solid brush strokes crawl to the center of the composition. From here, the stains become more and more erratic and fan out to the sides, as if propelled by an invisible force, while some of the more subtle hues dissolve into the depths. Green and brown tones transform, merge, evaporate. White tones bring the composition to peace and balance, like a fog covering the valley. The result is of a picturesque beauty evoking the grandeur of magnificent landscapes, topped with high mountain peaks and trees. Above, the sheet is washed in barely visible colors: emptiness, nothingness. Divided into two expressive spaces the composition depicts the Chinese spiritual tradition's influence on Zao Wou-Ki Emptiness and matter are not opposites, but rather complementary, just like air and earth, light and darkness. His compositions are in search of the ever precarious balance between conflicting forces of nature. In Zao Wou-Ki's dreamy landscape, European lyrical abstraction and traditional Eastern influences come together. Born into a large family of bankers and intellectuals, he showed an early interest in painting, especially in the great masters of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). They already expressed the moral hierarchy between the humble man and grand nature. His passion brings him to Paris in 1948, where the works of Matisse, Cézanne and Picasso make big impression on him. After more than 20 years he returns to his home country where he rediscovers the grandiose Chinese nature. In the 1970s he gradually finds a balance in the symbiosis between East and West. Documentation With documentation