ILLUSTRATED:

Zao Wou-Ki, Lin & Keng Gallery, Inc., Taipei, 2005, color illustrated, p. 52

"Small Bridge over the Stream" is a typical non-figurative painting by Zao Wou-ki from 1955, with his signature and Chinese title handwritten on the back of the painting. The term "small bridge over the stream" reminds one of the scene that is particular to Jiangnan, China. Though born in Beijing, Zao Wou-ki grew up in Shanghai and spent six years of his youth in Hangzhou, studying painting at Hangzhou National College of Art by the West Lake. A small bridge over the stream is a symbol of Jiangnan culture and scholarly taste; but in the heart of the artist, it also carries a beautiful old memory from his youthful days and his cultural motherland.

Zao's early works showed the influence of Cézanne, Picasso, and Paul Klee. The study of the classical paintings, ancient buildings, and church wall paintings in Holland, France, and Italy greatly expanded his horizon. His visit to the solo exhibition by Klee in Bern, Switzerland, in 1951, impressed Zao deeply with the skillful combination of the two conflicting cultures: Oriental culture and the Germanic culture. Klee's painting scale is not big, but Klee is great at creating space, enriching the limited size of the canvas with spacious and majestic content. Out of the small signs in his multiple layers of space, a world comes into being, which is a marvel for Zao Wou-ki. Inspired by Klee, Zao has found a way of artistic integration, re-discovering China in Europe.

Zao encodes the natural elements of grass, trees, rocks, and water, paying close attention to the traces of nature. And ancient Chinese characters are signs that have evolved from representational images. Klee showed Zao a direction; but instead of merely imitating Klee and therefore being reduced to a second-class follower of Klee, Wou-ki removed all static objects, flowers, and animals from his canvas. From 1954 on, he completely got rid of representational images and only signs or symbols are left in his painting. The riddle-like signs are transformed into different forms, which constitute a space. For Zao Wou-ki, paintings are his diary, disclosing personal and private emotions. His paintings gradually foresaw the crisis of a breakdown with his wife Lan-Lan two years later. With anxiety, worry, and impatience, he continued to explore, painting, re-painting, and destroying his paintings, until the imprint in his heart emerged, his paintings began to revive, and his strong will overcame the bottleneck in his creation.

And this painting of "Small Bridge over the Stream" in 1955 was created at this stage. A swirl of thoughts shook the artist, and with sentimentality, Zao Wou-ki thought of everything back in his hometown - Chinese poetry, his father's garden, the pavilions and corridors, and the small bridge over the stream. When composing the work of "Small Bridge over the Stream", what emerged in his mind were iconic images and the poem "Meditations in Autumn" by Ma Zhiyuan(c.1260-1335), the famous verse writer in the Yuan Dynasty: "Withered vine, old tree, crows at dusk, tiny bridge, flowing brook, and cottages, ancient road, bleak wind, bony steed. The sun sinking west, A heart-torn traveler at the end of the world." The painting is dominated by the color blue; lasting lines are the flowing stream, and the darker colors form the focus of the eye. Like a bridge, the painting connects the painter with the cultural motherland and good old memories. The dim trace of history in the background conveys the charm of the dusk.

It may well be said that the year 1955 was an important transition point for Zao's paintings from non-figurative art to abstract art, with tremendous painting energy, innovative ideas and artistic talent that has won universal academic recognition. Several world-class art museums have collected paintings by Zao Wou-ki dating to the year 1955, including "Avant l'orage" (Before the Storm) in the Tate Gallery in London, "L'incendie" in Centre Georges Pompidou, "Mistral" in The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, "Foule noire" in the Carnegie Institute, "Montagne dechirée" in the Minneapolis The Walker Art Center, "Pavillon ensoleillé" in the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, and "Nous Deux", which was originally collected by Harvard University, Fogg Art Museum but later released to the market in May 2009, and "Hommage à Tou Fu", which was sold at a sky-high price even with the economic setback in the autumn of 2008, all these are paintings of the year 1955. An artist can create no more than a dozen paintings every year; therefore, it is unimaginably rare and precious if one can own a painting dating to the year 1955.