PROVENANCE:
Private Collection, Switzerland

ILLUSTRATED:
Jean Leymarie, Zao Wou-ki, Editions Cercle d'Art, Paris, 1986, color illustrated, no. 120, p. 171
Claude Roy, Zao Wou-ki, Editions Cercle d'Art, Paris, 1988, color illustrated, p. 110
Zao Wou-ki Paintings 1935-2008, Kwai Fung Art Publishing House, Hong Kong, 2010, color illustrated, p. 168

Under the masterful brushwork of Zao Wou-ki, light shines, flows, and bends into countless shades of color, and the coloration – rich, delicate, and unpredictable – has rightfully become the most alluring element of his paintings. The ever-changing light momentarily seems heavy and overbearing, then suddenly oscillates to a tempered and restrained state; either way, the light always appears to carry a mysterious power from some unknown realm as if it were delivering a secret message from the cosmos too profound to be overlooked. A classic piece created in the 1960s, “19.12.66” was designed in a vertical composition. The artist performs a dance between light and space across a 195 cm canvas. Airy as well as fathomless, this work exhibits the maturity and confidence of the artist who once lived in France for nearly 20 years.

Zao came to Paris in 1948 and thence began his vibrant and exciting artistic exploration. Encountering from figurative painting and the lines inspired by Paul Klee to the oracle period that focused on symbols, Zao dived into abstractionism in the end of the 1950s. His transformations in each period were all brilliant and stunning. It was also after he moved to Paris that Zao, majoring in Western painting since National Hangzhou School of Art, re-discovered and embraced the beauty of Chinese culture. Chinese calligraphy, landscape and philosophy offered him inexhaustible nutrients, nurturing his artistic performance and even his inner strength. The intangible world hiding behind visual signs was the path that guided his artistic exploration. By the time in the 1960s, Zao finally established his unique lyrical language. The formally established abstractionism in the first half of the 20th century in Europe satisfied his need and desire for capturing the invisible power of feelings. In the meantime, he deeply grasped the essence in the expression of light and shadow that had been developed in Europe for hundreds of years since the Renaissance, unveiling the dynamism of light in the infinite realm that contains time and space. As French art historian, Daniel Marchesseau, describes : La couleur eclatante et cojlle ignee de sa gestuelle procede des chemeinements de sa meditation, dans la solitude de l’atelier. L’artiste joue de la ductilite de ses pigments. Un flambiement colore, brutal parfois, profond toujours, anime sur la toile les nuances de sa palette :eaux d’un blanc de nacre, accents gris perle, jest garance, duverts d’or, ombres de jais, nuage de fumee, toutes conferent a l’oeuvre une vibrant densite, vision autant que resurgence, secret autant qu’illumination. (De sourdes intensites en transendantes harmonies , Daniel Marchesseau , Zao Wou-ki 60 ans de peintures Joint Publishing, Shanghai , 1998, p.25)

Living in France for only a few years, Zao began working closely with Pierre Loeb, a celebrated art dealer in Paris, in the 1950s. Working with Galerie de France since 1957, Zao had held his exhibitions at these two galleries for plenty times, beginning to make his name known in the art scene in Paris. Having a special liking in travel, Zao visited the U.S. in 1958, getting acquainted with Samuel Kootz when staying in New York, and Kootz Gallery became the first gallery in the U.S. he cooperated with in a long term. Living in Europe, this Chinese artist received unprecedented warm welcome from the art scene on the New Continent. In 1959, Zao bought a warehouse and commissioned Georges Johannet to remodel it to be his studio. It was completely isolated and windowless with only natural light penetrating the glass rooftop and an independent indoor lighting system. Inside this secluded studio Zao avoided contact with the outside world. He meditated and created artworks here, cultivating and excavating his inner energy alone. He explored the unknown realm of art on his own, committed to work, grow and soar with his paintings. From the hardship and frustration about working alone in a foreign country and the twists and turns occurring in his romantic relationship to a series of tests in life, Zao found it too hard to express such complex feelings to others. Only when facing himself and his canvas could he speak his mind frankly and pour out his feelings. It was also because he worked in this spacious studio that Zao broke through technical restraints, creating stunning pieces in incredibly large scales. Zao held countless exhibitions in the 1960s. Praise from critics and several important exhibitions brought the artist unprecedented fame and recognition. By 1965, in Essen, Germany, Museum Folkwang held a retrospective exhibition of Zao with 64 works created from 1950 to 1964, which could be considered an important milestone in Zao’s artistic career. Painted in 1966, “19.12.66” exhibits the artist’s maturity and confidence in abstract painting. In Zao's first catalogue raisonne written in French, author Jean Leymarie described the constant development of his art in the 1960s with respect to the use of contrast and harmony to portray rhythm, texture and colour modulation: sometimes Zao favours monochrome, and at times rich dark dyes of brown with streaks of black; other times the tone is opalescent and light, like silver grey brume. While other modulations include snow and sapphire, mousse and rubious sumptuous accords.

Designed in a vertical composition, “19.12.66” predominantly features pale purple, light blue, and silver hues, fully demonstrating a brilliant flow of light. Delicate but bouncing strokes converge at the center of the upper half of the canvas, suspended in an infinite air. Several greenish blue lines explode in a reflection of light. Rays of light and invisible forces vibrate and leap about like silent blasts of fireworks. The lower half of the canvas reveals a subtle change of tone, laying out such pure emptiness that is serene, distant, and enticing. The composition, which vacillates between solid and empty, manifests the artistic concept that he acquired from Eastern philosophy and Chinese landscape painting, injecting a unique temperament into his abstract paintings. As Daniel Marchesseau commented in his review, “Dans ses tableaux en transparences et glacis abstraits, Zao Wou-ki offre une synthese econome entre l’allusion chinoise et le lyrisme occidental. L’evidence de ce laugage lui appartient en prpore... (De sourdes intensites en transendantes harmonies , Daniel Marchesseau , Zao Wou-ki 60 ans de peintures, Joint Publishing, Shanghai , 1998, p.25)”. In “19.12.66”, the momentum of light is clearly at center stage. The artist heartily displays the passion, movement, depth, and clarity of light in this single piece. He injects his rhythm and understanding of life into the paint itself, turning intangible and ineffable forces between heaven and earth into a visible eternity. Through this painting, the artist leads us to a clear and bright kingdom where we nakedly confront the changes of life alone, allowing us to emerge, our soul cleansed and rejuvenated.