Zao Wou-Ki

French painter of Chinese origin, Zao Wou-Ki was born in Beijing in 1920. After years of studies at the School of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, he moves to France in 1948. He quickly integrates the artistic renewal of post-war Paris and is one of the young painters represented by Pierre Loeb, the Galerie de France and the Kootz Gallery in New York. One of the first of his generation to make the connection between ancient Chinese tradition, European abstract painting and American abstract painting, Zao Wou-Ki was an essential milestone in abstract painting of the second half of the twentieth century. It is thus present in the largest private and public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the MoMA and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, the National Library of France and the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Artizon Museum in Tokyo, the National Gallery Singapore, the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.