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拍品专文
"Many of my paintings seem sparse. But oil is more difficult to render a wash effect than ink, so I spend more time conveying an empty space than I do in the other parts. Chinese painting has been tremendously significant for me in this regard, because of its rhythm created by form and empty space." - Zao Wou-Ki
By the end of the 1950s, Zao Wou-Ki was moving away from his Oracle-Bone style and looking to find new ways of expression. 11.03.60 is a product of Zao's new stylistic exploration after years of probing and exploring. His earlier symbolic motifs are turned into lines that are furled, layered, and stretched across the canvas, lines which one after another find their unique place in a unified space in black and white against a grey background. In this work, Zao's lines no longer serve an imbedded narrative meaning. Instead, they have become expressive means in their own terms. By combining varying hues and shades, Zao gradually explores how spatial depth is created. In the process of merging the fine and thick lines, a sense of movement and the passage of time is created as we can see in the movements of the paintbrush in Chinese calligraphy. In 1959, Zao bought an old warehouse in Paris which was converted into a painting studio by Georges Johannet. The studio did not have windows on the walls looking to the outside; instead, it was built with a glass ceiling to capture the sky light, which would shower down from above, giving infinite inspirations to Zao. In 11.03.60 , the center of the composition radiates with light, piercing through the dark brushstrokes. The central white cloud is pulsating with glowing energy, giving the impression that the heart of the painting is contracting and expanding, creating living energy and bringing a powerful meditative power. This life energy is exactly what Zao Wou-Ki sought to create in the 1960s. In 11.3.60, Zao rekindles the traditional notion that the energy of life is expressed through suggestion rather than by merely depicting a subject figuratively. Also, in the light and shadow of the work, a kind of poetic dialogue between East and West ensues. By 1960, Zao abandoned the use of highly variegated colors, which created an effect of simplistic candor no longer satisfactory. He reduced the number of colors in his work, transforming the bare variations of shades in black and white into a multi-layered palette of subtle hues. The grey background of a smooth and creamy texture works as an empty space from which new life can emerge. Zao once said, "Many of my paintings seem sparse. But oil is more difficult to render a wash effect than ink, so I spend more time conveying an empty space than I do in the other parts. Chinese painting has been tremendously significant for me in this regard, because of its rhythm created by form and empty space." Zao recalls his early 1960s works this way: "There weren't any more obstacles at a technical level, so I could set to work and paint, just following my feelings and painting as I wished. In the large-scale canvases I had to wrestle with space-not just to fill it up, but also to make it come to life, to throw myself completely into it." During this period, Zao transformed his symbols further, to achieve a state of pure lyrical abstraction in space and form. His works during this period mostly featured cool tonalities, heavy blacks and browns applied with intensive, forceful strokes, indicative of the emotional release of the creative process. The work 11.03.60 features highly energetic structure by means of the combination of white, black and shades of browns. Zao spontaneously fills his canvases with free expressions, not tied to preset rules, but using any combinations of innovative ideas possible to reflect his inner feelings and directions. Zao's work has escaped from the restriction of external form and is precursory of his Hurricane period. The start, connection, turn and close of each brushstroke reveals the deep foundations in calligraphy Zao accumulated since childhood, when his father taught him that only calligraphy capable of expressing emotion can be called art. Pursuing his study of the line, Zao allows his brushwork to reinvent itself by reinterpreting the cursive script. The lines are thin and delicate, short and transient, characteristic of this transitional period towards the Hurricane period where he introduces much bolder and rhythmic strokes in the mid- 1960s. A few months after the completion of 11.03.60 , the French postwar artist Alfred Manessier mentioned in a letter to Zao, “I listen attentively and open my heart to you through your painting so that you can say the crucial things you wish to share with me. I feel that your intense personality is so different, but I also feel a strong personal affinity for you. I am truly happy to say it: this person is so different, and the world, the past, the race, the light in your heart are all unknown to me ... but I know and recognize something in your work that touches me ... your paintings are beautiful. They surpass the practice of skill, and are more truthful than before.”
By the end of the 1950s, Zao Wou-Ki was moving away from his Oracle-Bone style and looking to find new ways of expression. 11.03.60 is a product of Zao's new stylistic exploration after years of probing and exploring. His earlier symbolic motifs are turned into lines that are furled, layered, and stretched across the canvas, lines which one after another find their unique place in a unified space in black and white against a grey background. In this work, Zao's lines no longer serve an imbedded narrative meaning. Instead, they have become expressive means in their own terms. By combining varying hues and shades, Zao gradually explores how spatial depth is created. In the process of merging the fine and thick lines, a sense of movement and the passage of time is created as we can see in the movements of the paintbrush in Chinese calligraphy. In 1959, Zao bought an old warehouse in Paris which was converted into a painting studio by Georges Johannet. The studio did not have windows on the walls looking to the outside; instead, it was built with a glass ceiling to capture the sky light, which would shower down from above, giving infinite inspirations to Zao. In 11.03.60 , the center of the composition radiates with light, piercing through the dark brushstrokes. The central white cloud is pulsating with glowing energy, giving the impression that the heart of the painting is contracting and expanding, creating living energy and bringing a powerful meditative power. This life energy is exactly what Zao Wou-Ki sought to create in the 1960s. In 11.3.60, Zao rekindles the traditional notion that the energy of life is expressed through suggestion rather than by merely depicting a subject figuratively. Also, in the light and shadow of the work, a kind of poetic dialogue between East and West ensues. By 1960, Zao abandoned the use of highly variegated colors, which created an effect of simplistic candor no longer satisfactory. He reduced the number of colors in his work, transforming the bare variations of shades in black and white into a multi-layered palette of subtle hues. The grey background of a smooth and creamy texture works as an empty space from which new life can emerge. Zao once said, "Many of my paintings seem sparse. But oil is more difficult to render a wash effect than ink, so I spend more time conveying an empty space than I do in the other parts. Chinese painting has been tremendously significant for me in this regard, because of its rhythm created by form and empty space." Zao recalls his early 1960s works this way: "There weren't any more obstacles at a technical level, so I could set to work and paint, just following my feelings and painting as I wished. In the large-scale canvases I had to wrestle with space-not just to fill it up, but also to make it come to life, to throw myself completely into it." During this period, Zao transformed his symbols further, to achieve a state of pure lyrical abstraction in space and form. His works during this period mostly featured cool tonalities, heavy blacks and browns applied with intensive, forceful strokes, indicative of the emotional release of the creative process. The work 11.03.60 features highly energetic structure by means of the combination of white, black and shades of browns. Zao spontaneously fills his canvases with free expressions, not tied to preset rules, but using any combinations of innovative ideas possible to reflect his inner feelings and directions. Zao's work has escaped from the restriction of external form and is precursory of his Hurricane period. The start, connection, turn and close of each brushstroke reveals the deep foundations in calligraphy Zao accumulated since childhood, when his father taught him that only calligraphy capable of expressing emotion can be called art. Pursuing his study of the line, Zao allows his brushwork to reinvent itself by reinterpreting the cursive script. The lines are thin and delicate, short and transient, characteristic of this transitional period towards the Hurricane period where he introduces much bolder and rhythmic strokes in the mid- 1960s. A few months after the completion of 11.03.60 , the French postwar artist Alfred Manessier mentioned in a letter to Zao, “I listen attentively and open my heart to you through your painting so that you can say the crucial things you wish to share with me. I feel that your intense personality is so different, but I also feel a strong personal affinity for you. I am truly happy to say it: this person is so different, and the world, the past, the race, the light in your heart are all unknown to me ... but I know and recognize something in your work that touches me ... your paintings are beautiful. They surpass the practice of skill, and are more truthful than before.”