TRAVELER’S DIARY:Zao Wou-Ki at Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris,Part II

Zao Wou-Ki, Le vent pousse la mer, 2004, Oil on canvas, 194,5 x 390 cm, Private Collection, Photo: Dennis Bouchard, © Zao Wou-Ki © ADAGP-Paris 2018, Courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de ParisEvery time I visit the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris I realize that there are some spaces (Museum or Galleries) that I visit them not only for the Art exhibitions but also for their Architecture, because for me both hold an equal position(!) The building has a long story, the 1937 “Exposition internationale des Arts et Techniques” provided an opportunity for Paris to create two museums: one owned by the City of Paris, the other by the French state (Part I).

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris Archive

The project for this dual purpose building was entrusted to architects: Jean-Claude Dondel, André Aubert, Paul Viard and Marcel Dastugue.  Composed of two wings, the building houses today in the west wing the Palais de Tokyo, while the east wing (property of the City of Paris) houses Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, it’s a Museum that I discovered recently, but I am fascinated by the space and the Architecture, because it is a building that really, whatever artworks are exhibited, the communicate both among themselves and the space. The exhibition of Museum’s Permanent Collection is really very good (we have present it to you: here and here), this time they had made changes to the positions of the works for the needs of the three different temporary exhibitions οφ the Museum and looked like a new exhibition. But let’s return to the Painting exhibitions, the previous, Jean Fautrier’s retrospective “Texture and Light” (26/1-20/5/18), I believe that was overrated, in contrast with the exhibition “L’espace est silence” (1/6/18-6/1/19) devoted to Zao Wou-Ki (1920–2013). It was a big and pleasant surprise!!! The Chinese artist Zao Wou-Ki moved in Paris in 1948, where he lived and worked for fifteen years, although since 1958 he began to visiting United States. As he said “I Paris I discovered my personality”. His relationships with the outside world were born through trips, fruitful encounters, the first of which were with Pierre Soulages, Edgar Varèse and Henri Michaux, who wrote eight poems to accompany “Lecture par Henri Michaux de huit lithographies de Zao Wou-Ki”, his first lithographs, without even knowing the artist. Poetry and music were for him two constant poles of attraction. Walking through the exhibition, from gallery to gallery, through the 40 large-scale paintings which focus on earthly of blue colors, the visitor realizes that behind the abstraction and the color tension, underlies a combination, intersection, and inevitably the encounter of many different worlds and influences. Beyond that Zao Wou-Ki lived and worked in the most important era of contemporary art In Paris where the artist lived and worked the most important era of Contemporary art in Paris where Art Movements and Currents succeeded one another, he had the speed and the intelligence to discover the vitality of American painting and the large scale of the canvas that allowed him to be released and examines a new light by inviting the viewer to reflect on the subject of his paintings. The works of Zao Wou-Ki, are very strong and at the same time silent and strict, since for his the space is silence, which is obvious, at the same time, he recalls and reintroduces the Chinese painting and calligraphy he had abandoned earlier, thus creating a very personal style. Through the deconstruction of Chinese painting form, using steady colors as blue, pink, ocher and gold, the viewer discovers new elements that travel him to different spaces of Contemporary Art. The great surprise, however, is the epitome of the exhibition, presenting Zao Wou-Ki’s works, it is a group of inks from 2006, never been shown before and complete the belief that everything floats up from light and poetry. They stand there in front of visitor silent and steady, like alternative personal landscapes.

Info: Curators: François Michaud, Erik Verhagen, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 12-14 avenue de New York,  Paris, Duration 1/6/18-6/1/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, www.mam.paris.fr

Zao Wou-Ki, Hommage à Edgar Varèse - 25.10.64, 1964, Oil on canvas, 255 x 345 cm Donation Françoise Marquet-Zao, 2015 Musée cantonal des beaux-arts-Lausanne, © Zao Wou-Ki © ADAGP-Paris 2018, Courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Zao Wou-Ki, Hommage à Edgar Varèse – 25.10.64, 1964, Oil on canvas, 255 x 345 cm Donation Françoise Marquet-Zao, 2015 Musée cantonal des beaux-arts-Lausanne, © Zao Wou-Ki © ADAGP-Paris 2018, Courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

 

 

Zao Wou-Ki, Décembre 89 – février 90 - Quadriptyque, 1989-1990, Oil on canvas, 162 x 400 cm, Private Collection, Photo: Jean-Louis Losi, © Zao Wou-Ki © ADAGP-Paris 2018, Courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Zao Wou-Ki, Décembre 89 – février 90 – Quadriptyque, 1989-1990, Oil on canvas, 162 x 400 cm, Private Collection, Photo: Jean-Louis Losi, © Zao Wou-Ki © ADAGP-Paris 2018, Courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

 

 

Zao Wou-Ki, 10.09.72 - En mémoire de May (10.03.72), 1972, Oil on canvas, 200 x 525.7 cm, Gift of the artist to the French State in 1973 Attribution to the Pompidou Center, Musée national d'art moderne/CCI,-Paris, © Zao Wou-Ki © ADAGP-Paris 2018, Courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Zao Wou-Ki, 10.09.72 – En mémoire de May (10.03.72), 1972, Oil on canvas, 200 x 525.7 cm, Gift of the artist to the French State in 1973 Attribution to the Pompidou Center, Musée national d’art moderne-Paris, © Zao Wou-Ki © ADAGP-Paris 2018, Courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

 

 

Zao Wou-Ki, Untitled, 2006, Chinese ink on paper, 97 x 180 cm, Private Collection, Photo: Dennis Bouchard, © Zao Wou-Ki © ADAGP-Paris 2018, Courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Zao Wou-Ki, Untitled, 2006, Chinese ink on paper, 97 x 180 cm, Private Collection, Photo: Dennis Bouchard, © Zao Wou-Ki © ADAGP-Paris 2018, Courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

 

 

Left: Zao Wou-Ki, 01.10.73, 1973, Oil on canvas, 260 x 200 cm, Private Collection, Photo: Christie’s, , © Zao Wou-Ki © ADAGP-Paris 2018, Courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Right: Zao Wou-Ki, Sans titre, 2006. Chinese ink on paper, 274,5 x 213,5 cm, Private Collection, Photo: Christie’s, , © Zao Wou-Ki © ADAGP-Paris 2018, Courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Left: Zao Wou-Ki, 01.10.73, 1973, Oil on canvas, 260 x 200 cm, Private Collection, Photo: Christie’s, , © Zao Wou-Ki © ADAGP-Paris 2018, Courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Right: Zao Wou-Ki, Sans titre, 2006. Chinese ink on paper, 274,5 x 213,5 cm, Private Collection, Photo: Christie’s, , © Zao Wou-Ki © ADAGP-Paris 2018, Courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris