Villepin Presents Works by Celebrated Chinese Artist Zao Wou-ki

Villepin presents its inaugural exhibition Friendship & Reconciliation, featuring a wide range of works by the late artist Zao Wou-ki, the Chinese painter celebrated for his embrace of Chinese and Western artistic traditions. Such a wide range of Zao’s works is rarely seen in one gallery.

Marking the centenary of Zao Wou-ki’s birth, the exhibition aims to highlight the artist’s creative resolution of contrasting cultures as well as the friendships he formed with fellow artists and collectors throughout the course of his career.

Through rare works from the 1940s to the early 2000s, including a selection of large-scale oil paintings, watercolours, Chinese inks and lithographs, the exhibition tells the story of Zao’s life and the evolution of his practice, from his background as a drawing instructor in Mainland China and early figurative tendencies to an iconic mid-century painter known for his abstract and gestural works.

Through his use of bold lines and swirls of highly saturated colours, combined with elements of Chinese calligraphy, Zao’s paintings mark an exemplary reconciliation between Chinese and Western aesthetics, in which the language of modern abstraction is enriched by Chinese traditions.