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Artist: Zao Wou-Ki (Chinese, 1920-2013)
Chinese-French painter and printmaker. Studied under Lin Fengmian, a pioneer of modern painting in China. In 1948, Zao moved to Paris; in 1957, he discovered works by Paul Klee in Switzerland; in 1957, he entered New York's vibrant art scene. Zao befriended a number of famous artists: such as Alberto Giacometti, his neighbor in Paris, and Franz Kline and many others. In his early works of painting, Zao rejected classical conventions of traditional Chinese but returned to brush-and-ink techniques. His later works combined traditional Chinese literati painting and Modernist art-making techniques. He developed a unique, non-representational style that employed oil paint and contrasting colors, while his early works avoided ink that followed the calligraphic style of Chinese landscape paintings. Rather, Zao's paintings have continuously functioned as fragments of a larger scene. Zao's works can be found in Tate, MoMA, Guggenheim, as well as in private collections.