Zao Wou Ki

Born in Beijing in 1920, Zao Wou-ki began his artistic studies under the direction of Lin Fengmian at the Hangzhou School of Fine Arts in 1935 at the age of 15. After graduating in 1941, he was appointed assistant professor at the school where he taught until 1947. The following year, Zao Wou-ki moved to Paris, where he took courses at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and encountered Western artistic movements such as European Lyrical Abstraction. The artist developed his abstract style throughout the 1950s alongside fellow artists Alberto Giacometti and Joan Miró as well as American gallery owner Samuel Kootz. Zao Wou-ki has enjoyed various international exhibitions, representing France at the 40th International Exhibition of the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh in 1956 and the Venice Biennial in 1960, as well as receiving the Praemium Imperiale Award of Painting, Japan in 1994. In 2002 he was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Paris and in 2006 was elevated to the decorated position of Grand Officier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur by the President of France.

Zao Wou-Ki and I.M.Pei in 1976

Zao Wou-Ki was born in Beijing, China, in 1920 and died in Nyon, Switzerland, in 2013. 

Some important Institut Collections include 

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; 

Museum of Modern Art, New York;

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; 

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; 

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; 

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; 

Tate Modern,London;

Centre Pompidou, Paris. 

Musee D’Art Moderne De La Ville De Paris.

Zao Wou-Ki was awarded the Praemium Imperiale Prize for Painting in 1994. In 1993, he was named a Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur, and he was made Grand Officier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur in 2016 by the French President Jacques Chirac. He was elected Member of l’Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2002.

Zao Wou-Ki Galerie National Du Jeu De Paume with his Academician’s Sword,Nov 26 2003.

Recent exhibitions include Fondation Pierre Gianadda,Martigny, Switzerland (2015–2016); 

No Limits (organized by Colby College Museum of Art), Asia Society Museum, New York (2016–2017; traveled to Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME, in2017); 

Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris (2016); 

Musée Cernuschi, Paris (2016); 

L’espace est silence, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris (2018 –2019).