\t\t\tAn exhibition by the Franco-Chinese master printmaker Zao Wou-ki opened in Hong Kong on Saturday, the first time his work has been on display in Asia.<\/p>\n
Hong Kong’s M+ museum is hosting a collection of more experimental prints by the artist, who is considered a master of the lyrical abstraction movement and whose work regularly fetches vast sums at auction.<\/p>\n
Visitors can explore, in chronological and topical order, the artist’s early figurative works and those inspired by Chinese calligraphy.<\/p>\n
These are followed by an explosively colourful series of abstract pieces based on the artist’s vision of the elements \u2013 earth, wind and water.<\/p>\n
Chinese inks and engravings, which Zao created for poems written by his friends, Henri Michaux and Rene Char are also on display.<\/p>\n
The exhibition is being held following a donation of more than 200 prints and bibliographic books by his widow, Fran\u00e7oise Marquet-Zao.<\/p>\n
Born into a wealthy banking family in China in 1920, Zao discovered art through his grandfather’s passion for calligraphy.<\/p>\n
He became captivated by European painters as a student at the Hangzhou Fine Arts Academy before moving to Paris in 1948 to continue his training and forging ties within the French art scene.<\/p>\n
“He didn’t want to be considered as a Chinese painter” in Paris, “or to make chinoiseries,” said Yann Hendgen, art director at the Zao Wou-Ki foundation.<\/p>\n
“He wanted to be a painter as Soulages,” he added, referencing the French painter and graphic artist Pierre Soulages.<\/p>\n
Zao, who died in 2013, had a special relationship with Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
“In 1958, Zao Wou-Ki was invited to teach in Hong Kong for one semester,” said M+ curator Mo Wan.<\/p>\n
“He had a long-lasting influence on the Hong Kong culture scene.”<\/p>\n
It was his first return to Asia since departing for the French capital, which allowed him to reconnect with Chinese culture.<\/p>\n
After Hong Kong, marking the close of a period in his oeuvre, he made a decisive turn towards the abstraction movement. (AFP)\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An exhibition by the Franco-Chinese master printmaker Zao Wou-ki opened in Hong Kong on Saturday, the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-182850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}