Artist Zao Wou-ki's works bridged east and west
Tributes paid to Chinese-French abstract painter who has died aged 93
Chinese-French abstract painter Zao Wou-ki, who died on Tuesday at his home Switzerland aged 93, has been praised by experts and critics as a significant figure in 20th-century Chinese art who perfectly blended Chinese and Western influences.
Art dealer Daphne King of Alisan Fine Arts, one of the first galleries to exhibit Zao's art works in Hong Kong in 1993, said Zao was among a generation of Chinese artists studying in the West.
On graduating from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou in 1941, the Beijing-born Zao went to live in Paris in 1948.
Art dealer Pascal de Sarthe, who opened his Hong Kong gallery in 2011 with an exhibition of the artist, said Zao was warmly embraced by the French intellectual circle upon his arrival in Paris.
"He was a very intelligent man, passionate about art, and he was full of life," said de Sarthe.
Being exposed to Western art changed Zao's artistic course. In 1951, he discovered Paul Klee's paintings at museums in Bern and Geneva and it this was a big influence on him.
"Zao's early works were more figurative," King said. "Zao was struck by the art works he saw, and his works became more abstract characterised," King said.
