PROVENANCE:
Dimensions Art Gallery, Taipei
Acquired from the above by the present owner
This painting is to be sold with a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

1954 was a critical year for Zao Wou-ki. It was in that year that he shifted his focus to abstract painting. Before that year, Zao was highly influenced by Paul Klee (1879–1940), from whom he drew inspiration, and immersed himself in the mysterious charms of lines and symbols. He abandoned traditional Western style painting techniques that require creating a sense of three-dimensional space, and instead set out on a journey in search of a remote and poetic space. Such a metaphysical pursuit that transcends the limit of form undoubtedly awakened Zao’s childhood memories. Owing to the earnest and tireless instruction of his grandfather, Zao Shao-fu, Zao had built a solid foundation of Chinese studies, which prompted him to blend the philosophical thinking of Eastern civilization and philosophy into the contextual fabric of his Western paintings.

His exploration of oracle bone script and the engraved patterns of bronzeware from ancient China offered up an abundance of artistic inspiration. Our forefathers created those ancient characters and symbols, which represent a crystallization of wisdom, by observing the natural world and abstract phenomena. From using lines to depict the tangible things from flowers and grass, trees, rocks to people during his “Klee period” to broadening his perspective on cities, the natural environment and the formless forces floating in between, Zao once again transformed his artistic style. However, it was not so much about him grasping the symbolic beauty of form through the study of oracle bone script, but rather him realizing the connection between form and natural forces, and therefore discovered a more charming and attractive world. Filled with forces, this invisible world is difficult to manage yet much grander and rich in various resources. Such a cognitive realm that lacks concrete images echoes the trend of Western abstract art in the 20th century. Under Zao’s brush, these elements that belong to the world of abstraction finally converge and form into a piece of remarkable melody that combines the East and the West.

Created in 1954, “Ville flottante” is an important work that marks Zao’s departure from out of Klee’s shadow and into the initial stages of developing his own artistic language. In the realm that is suffused with a copper colored hue, the artist arranges a sacred and elegant civilized air. Although the lines converging to the center remain clear and delicate as the style of Klee, they already reveal the powerful force exerted on engraved patterns. Such a development unfolds Zao’s aestheticism in forms that he had learned from the study of oracle bone script. The glistening light penetrates the thick and heavy layers of copper and brown, showing the complementary tints of blue. Such graceful luster serves as a foil to a touch of silver-white in the center, making it the focus of sight. Here, lines no longer outline concrete images as the artist had been doing but dissolve into abstract structures. Perhaps they still allude to the winding streets, the scattered buildings and the tower that looks to the sky, yet they also bring to light a different level of understanding that goes beyond forms, a kind of realization that concerns nature and the imagery in the human world. Through the convergence and diffusion of lines and the light and shadow that leap between them, “Ville flottante” portrays the lively city contours and arouses infinite imagination through perceptive description rather than specific depiction. His brilliant use of gold and copper takes on an unspeakable sacred and elegant atmosphere, which also foreshadows the creation of his most critically-acclaimed copper-colored abstract paintings created in the 1960s.

Zao, after creating “Ville flottante” at age thirty-three, changed his attitude from purposefully avoiding Eastern elements for fear of falling into a “Chinoiserie” stereotype when first arriving in Paris to earnestly sifting through and excavating the profound Eastern cultural fountainhead and imbuing those cultural qualities into his later paintings. In doing so, he opened up a brand new artistic perspective for us. He once said, “I endeavor to seek a free spatial relationship in my paintings. My perspective is similar to the moving, multi-angle perspective often seen in Chinese paintings.” Leaving from the East conversely prompted him to delve deeper into the East. In the collisions, the impacts, and the vacillations between Eastern and Western culture, he burst forth an immeasurable power in art and developed his remote and profound Zao style through intensive artistic alterations and transformations. He believed that “paintings are supposed to give people another perspective on things, as in the view point of paintings,” which was why he strove to “create a language that is not restricted by themes” as “Ville flottante” poetically showcases: the infinite imagination about dwelling, groups, human society, and nature.