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Lot Essay
The 1960s was universally recognized as the peak of Zao's career for he achieved a fully mature artistic style by breaking free from the two traditions that he was bound by – Chinese and Western. In 12.01.62, the artist brings forth the union between the two through expressing the elements of Chinese traditional painting and calligraphy with the Western medium oil paint. This seemingly limitless breadth and depth of horizontal space captures Zao Wou-Ki's assuredness and soaring creativity at the height of his career, crowning 12.01.62 a high quality work.
12.01.62 is defined by the style with more expressive brushworks and calligraphic lines, a modern interpretation and homage to the tradition of Chinese ink painting. Zao Wou-Ki practiced Chinese calligraphy under the tutelage of his grandfather since he was small. Zao endeavors to challenge Chinese calligraphy with his solid and firm groundwork of calligraphy and strives to represent it in his personal artistic style. In the 1960s, Zao matured into the pinnacle of his career with the hurricane period. At the centre of 12.01.62, Zao adopts his knowledge of calligraphy, applying each crisp stroke with the texturally heavy oil paint in such delicate and smooth manner, fusing Chinese calligraphy with the Western medium.
"Knowing the white, retaining the black, it is the form of the world." (Lao Zi, chapter 28)
Employing an array of subtle shades of black and white in 12.01.62, the artist reveals a landscape through the representation of positive and negative space, taking reference from Chinese philosophy. Unlike the Western painting approach of 'filling out' the canvas as to complete a painting, traditional Chinese landscape paintings leave areas unpainted or blank, known as 'liu bai', to suggest space, dimensionality, and subjective perspective. The blank areas allow its viewers' imagination to be set free and roam beyond the limits of the canvas. The use of colour here also echoes with Daoism, in which white suggests emptiness or void while black signifies solidity. Sweeps of white diluted paint collide and clash with the explosive black strokes at the centre, contrasting the stillness of the big black strokes at the top and bottom edges. The shades of black and white conflict the qualities of the moving and still, the imaginary and real, destabilizing the representation of the full and the empty.
12.01.62 is defined by the style with more expressive brushworks and calligraphic lines, a modern interpretation and homage to the tradition of Chinese ink painting. Zao Wou-Ki practiced Chinese calligraphy under the tutelage of his grandfather since he was small. Zao endeavors to challenge Chinese calligraphy with his solid and firm groundwork of calligraphy and strives to represent it in his personal artistic style. In the 1960s, Zao matured into the pinnacle of his career with the hurricane period. At the centre of 12.01.62, Zao adopts his knowledge of calligraphy, applying each crisp stroke with the texturally heavy oil paint in such delicate and smooth manner, fusing Chinese calligraphy with the Western medium.
"Knowing the white, retaining the black, it is the form of the world." (Lao Zi, chapter 28)
Employing an array of subtle shades of black and white in 12.01.62, the artist reveals a landscape through the representation of positive and negative space, taking reference from Chinese philosophy. Unlike the Western painting approach of 'filling out' the canvas as to complete a painting, traditional Chinese landscape paintings leave areas unpainted or blank, known as 'liu bai', to suggest space, dimensionality, and subjective perspective. The blank areas allow its viewers' imagination to be set free and roam beyond the limits of the canvas. The use of colour here also echoes with Daoism, in which white suggests emptiness or void while black signifies solidity. Sweeps of white diluted paint collide and clash with the explosive black strokes at the centre, contrasting the stillness of the big black strokes at the top and bottom edges. The shades of black and white conflict the qualities of the moving and still, the imaginary and real, destabilizing the representation of the full and the empty.