Zao Wou-Ki

Artist Biography:

Zao Wou-Ki was a French-Chinese artist known for his non-representational paintings that blended Eastern and Western modes of art making. “Everybody is bound by a tradition. I am bound by two,” the artist had said. Similar in style to the Abstract Expressionists, the Lyrical Abstractionist Zao admired the work of Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. Born on February 1, 1920 in Peking, China, he studied at the Hangzhou Fine Arts School for six years and was influenced by the work of Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and especially Paul Klee. He moved to Paris in 1947, and was a neighbor to Alberto Giacometti and friends with Sam Francis, Joan Mitchell, Jean-Paul Riopelle, and Pierre Soulages. Zao became a French citizen in 1964. The painter and printmaker died on April 9, 2013 in Nyon, Switzerland at the age of 93. His work is in the collections of the Tate Modern in London, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and The Museum of Modern Art in New York.