Zao Wou-ki: No Boundaries

Allegro Print Pte Ltd., Singapore, 2016, 65 pp.

Art history remembers French-Chinese artist Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013) as a formidable figure in the world of post-war avant-garde abstract art, who straddled two traditions to produce seminal works of great historical significance and value.

On loan from a private collection, the exhibition Zao Wou-Ki: No Boundaries charts the evolution of his illustrious career from the 1950s to the 2000s, highlighting the ways in which he renewed his art through various forms, and unveiling in particular, a lesser-known side of the painter whose highly developed printmaking practice reflects ceaseless growth and creativity. Like his paintings, his prints display the rhythm of his fundamental and intercultural influences; coalescing and diverging in fluctuating patterns. They speak of the duality of his artistic senses, and moreover, the clash of cultures that broke upon his inner sense of self as a young man on foreign soil.

Essay by Tessa Chung.