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| Zao Wou-Ki Untitled 1960 etching and aquatint |
Zao Wou-Ki occupies a rare position in twentieth-century abstraction: a Chinese-born artist fully at home in Paris, yet one who never abandoned the visual memory of his early training in ink and calligraphy. His work synthesised Eastern technique with European modernism, creating a vocabulary entirely his own.
From December 13, 2025 to May 3, 2026, M+ in Hong Kong presents Zao Wou-Ki: Master Printmaker, Asia's first major exhibition dedicated entirely to the artist's graphic works. While Zao is often celebrated for his monumental canvases, this retrospective repositions his work on paper as a laboratory of invention—revealing a practice as exploratory and rigorous as his painting.
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| Zao Wou-Ki Piazza Siena 1951 oil on canvas |
The exhibition will comprise nearly 180 works, spanning five decades and covering Zao’s development from early post-war experiments in Paris to his late-1990s explorations. Early pieces show his engagement with lithography, etching, and aquatint, blending the sensibilities of Chinese woodblock training with the gestural expressiveness absorbed in Paris.
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| Zao Wou-Ki Landscape with Crescent 1949 lithograph |
His early pieces from the 1950s reveal confident abstraction: dynamic compositions where line and colour evoke imagined landscapes, blending the precision of Chinese woodblock training with gestural expressiveness absorbed in post-war Paris.
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| Zao Wou-Ki Untitled 1978 lithograph |
From the 1970s onward, Zao moved beyond experimentation toward a synthesis of influences. Colour palettes become more luminous, and compositions reflect a contemplative engagement with Taoist concepts of harmony and natural rhythm—ideas that informed both his ink and oil works.
In comparison to contemporaries such as Pierre Soulages or Sam Francis, Zao’s prints retain a meditative quality, rooted in calligraphic gestures rather than monochrome abstraction or chromatic intensity. His work demonstrates that printmaking, often considered secondary, can be a central driver of artistic evolution. These prints compress expansive spatial ideas into intimate formats, offering a concentrated encounter with the lyricism that also defines his paintings.
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| Zao Wou-Ki Untitled 2000 lithograph |
Exhibition Details:
Dates: 13 December 2025 – 3 May 2026
Location: Main Hall Gallery, M+, West Kowloon Cultural District,
Hong Kong