PROVENANCE:

Collection of E. Steven and Nancy W. Bauer (acquired directly from the artist)

Private collection, Asia

EXHIBITED:

Paintings by Zao Wou-ki, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, May 8 - June 16, 1968

In 1970, Zao Wou-ki's first autobiography published in France, it indicates that the artist's accomplishment was generally acknowledged by then. Before that, French television station had just produced and broadcasted a special series of Zao's art in 1969. Earlier, He was invited by Japan National Museum of Modern Art for exhibition, held his second retrospective exhibition in his life in Musée d'Art Contemporain, Montreal, there were as well countless invitations from all over the world. Zao thinks that his paintings created during 1960-1970 have received fruitful results. Many art critics also praised his abstract paintings from that period; he acquired enormous fame that he had never expected during that time.

French art historian René de Solier once asked Zao about his taste on colors, Zao answered: "I like all kind of colors!" Solier followed "Which of them is the base color?" "None, I have no preference on colors, I have better reception on trembles." This short conversation explained Zao's secret in his paintings. Colors aren't necessary to be the subject in his paintings, trembles of lights are, and he has more concern on the space inside the picture. Trembling lights and colors established the look of Zao's lyrical and abstract paintings during the 1960's. Traditional Chinese landscape paintings possessed above features, and Zao not only is conscious of the essences in eastern paintings, but also carries the influences from Paris classical paintings as well as contemporary abstracts, therefore he said other artists learned one tradition by heart, he learned two.

Taiwanes are critic Hsiao Chiung-jui sees Zao's paintings in an emotional point of view; he thinks that Zao's works is a record of rise and fall in life, and various emotional changes from living. He pointed out that Zao's works during the '60s features "lines as thin as fibers". Although he suffered from depression, fear and emotional entanglements, his paintings remain harmonic, uplifting, unrestrained and rising. "Sienna is the base color in his works from the '60s, they shines golden bronze flames, exquisite, sharp and paranoid fiber-like lines freely splashed, combines in the picture following his heart, he got rid of restrains of themes and rules . Zao Wou-ki presented a deep, dynamic, and glorious world of wilderness."(Masters of Chinese Painting: Zao Wou-ki, Chin Hsiu Publications, Taipei, 1992, p. 18) The frustrations from working in a foreign land, depressions, and endurances in life was hard to express. Only when facing the canvas in his studio he could talk freely to his art. Therefore Zao's 1960's paintings were full of strong and intense emotions with great philosophies with on.

His old classmate Wu Guanzhong once said, Zao Wou-ki's abstract paintings was like a wing spread Kun-Peng to him, that is an illusion when a shooting star across the sky. "...the older, the wiser, Zao's pictures turned to be spicy around 1970. There are bizarre lights penetrates through thickness and richness, wandering into giant's footsteps......" (Wu Guanzhong, 'Zao Wou-ki's paintings', Memories of Wu Guanzhong, WanXiang publishing, Taipei, 1st edition Mar. 1992, p. 223)

Chu Ko thought about field pleasures in the wilderness when he looked at Zao's paintings; there are also two dimensional spaces like sculptures of flowers overlaid on the forest. "All I can see in his pictures are: wilderness and loneliness, rivers, oceans and waves, springs flowing, grasses waving up and down, mosses on rocks, mottled rocks, spring flowers turning purple, and golden sunshine, nature is everywhere in his paintings." (Chu Ko, The Truth of Nature) Zao combined the essences from eastern and western arts, In the eyes of no matter eastern or western critics, his paintings is unique and extraordinary. As a world famed artist, his success is never by chance or accidental.

This oil painting, "30.11.67", was completed sometime in the late fall or early winter of 1967, at a point in Zao's career when he had lived in Paris for 20 years and found his mature individual style as a painter. While an abstract work, the color and compositional structure of "30.11.67" immediately put the viewer in mind of a dramatic ocean view. The foreground is kept in dark shades of brown, interspersed with subtly blended hues of jasper, Prussian blue, lilac and pink, all applied in layers of delicate strokes that intermingle to form a shifting kaleidoscope of color – a reflection of the artist's complex mood and innermost emotions. The blue in the left area dominates the canvas with its purer tones and intimations of turquoise and lapis lazuli, drawing the observer's eye involuntarily to this visual focal point. This only serves, however, to immerse us in the larger image that is fed by the contrast between the blue, white, and brownish areas, each representing different aspects of the sea: its brilliant colors, its foaming waves, and its unfathomable depth. The overall effect is that of a strangely muted and peaceful amalgam of yin and yang - of harsh force and gentle softness - coming to life through Zao's masterfully applied brushstrokes and expert use of color. Brimming with the powerful rhythm of Mother Nature, "30.11.67" conjures up the sound of the surf in our ears. Our heart opens up, and we experience a sense of calmness in the face of the ocean's vastness: a glimpse of eternity. Among Zao's work from the 1960s, this piece stands out as one of his more tranquil pieces.