Founded in Paris in 1924 by Pierre Loeb, Galerie Pierre was one of the most active galleries on the European and American art scenes during the 20th century. Attracting avant-garde artists such as Spanish artists Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miró, Surrealist painters Paul Klee, Man Ray, and Max Ernst, along with French artistic icons Marc Chagall and Georges Braque, Galerie Pierre became a hotbed of artistic expression and innovation. Granting exhibitions to new forms of European Expressionism such as Raoul Dufy’s Fauvism and Jean Arp’s Dadaism, in the 1930s Galerie Pierre was also the choice location for displays by Balthus, Victor Brauner, and Wassily Kandinsky. After the end of World War II, Pierre Loeb continued to promote innovation and exploration in European Modernism with prominent displays by Giacometti, Antonin Artaud, Jean-Paul Riopelle, and Georges Mathieu. Displayed alongside these other masters of Modern expression, Zao Wou-ki was also mentioned by Pierre Loeb in his autobiography, and it is no doubt that the exhibition at Galerie Pierre played a pivotal role in Zao Wou-ki’s artistic development and promotion in the art world at that time.

Initially recommended by the French poet Henri Michaux, in 1951 Pierre Loeb had his first viewing of Zao Wou-ki’s works after visiting the artist’s studio in Paris. Immediately attracted to the unique Chinese aesthetics inherent in Zao’s work, Loeb proposed an exhibition and exclusive contract with the artist. A secure relationship lasting until 1957, this collaboration allowed Zao security to explore a greater range of personal style, and direct contact with the other avant-garde artists exhibited by Loeb at Galerie Pierre.

This support and experience provided the foundation and a smooth transition for Zao from figurative painting to abstract art, which would later become his main focus in artistic expression. The present lot, 05.06.53 - Composition bistre, noire, is an exclusive work which was first exhibited in Galerie Pierre during this time of collaboration and innovation for the artist.

From 1951-1952, Zao Wou-ki found inspiration from the painting of German Expressionist Paul Klee, seeking to depict poetic scenes which explored both the representation of light and the visualization of the infinite. Klee, who had himself been influenced by Orientalism, provided a clear influence for Zao in combining Eastern aesthetics with Western abstraction. Utilizing lines and symbols from Chinese tradition, Zao began to develop his own unique style of abstraction, using techniques originating from Chinese landscape painting alongside figurative characters, animals, and buildings from the European cities around him to establish his expressive compositions. Beginning in 1953, Zao took further inspiration from Chinese cultural tradition, painting delicate hieroglyphics of early Chinese characters taken from ancient oracle bones, imbuing his canvases with intense spiritual power.

05.06.53 - Composition bistre, noire, completed in 1953, displays this ancient Chinese cultural influence in a composition rife with vitality and a restless atmosphere of elation despite its monochromatic hues.

Deceptively simple, 05.06.53 - Composition bistre, noire depicts gracefully painted lines, scrawled across the canvas like delicate embroidery. The undulating tones of brown and black vaguely recall a mountainous landscape, as shadowy architecture reminiscent of old European church squares emerges from the dark brown depths. The intensity of the layers combined with the soaring effervescence of the thin, dark lines establishes a complex variance in dimension and perception. This use of simple brown and black as abstract innovation is extremely rare in Zao’s work, making 05.06.53 - Composition bistre, noire an even more exceptional example of the artist’s mastery of expression.

Regarding this shift from the figural to the abstract in his artistic explorations, Zao Wou-ki once stated, “still life, flowers, animals have all disappeared. I now paint imaginary symbols on a monochrome background.” Although a time of artistic struggle for the artist, it remains the most valuable germination period during which Zao developed his iconic abstract aesthetic. “Then, gradually, the symbols became forms,” Zao recalls, “and the forms turned into space. As I painted and re-painted, gave up and started again, something was starting to emerge. It seemed as though my paintings were starting to move, to come to life. Forms burst out of the canvases, and I found that I now dared to use colors that I had previously been nervous about using.” ("Puis, petit à petit, les signes devinrent des forms; les fonds, espace. A force de reprendre, de détruire de recommencer, quelque chose en moin semblait émerger.

Ma peinture semblait se mettre en movement, s'agiter. Des formes surgissaient et j'osais employer des coulers qui jusque-là me faisaient peur.") (Zao Wou-ki & Françoise Marquet, Zao Wou-ki Autoportrait, editions Fayard, Paris, 1988 p. 105)

Having studied calligraphy since childhood, and versed in the techniques of traditional Chinese literati painting after his enrollment at the school of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, Zao Wou-ki was able to deftly combine this cultural tradition with the new movements he encountered in Europe. As the Chinese landscape painter and poet Shi Tao once wrote: “To build up a kind of spirit in painting, life is thus created under the brush. Trifling matters disappear on the paper and brightness emerges from the chaotic world.” Such brightness and life radiates from Zao’s compositions, freely expressed in his vivid abstractions.

The present lot, 05.06.53 - Composition bistre, noire, named by the artist himself, follows a common trend for Expressionist artists of this period, many of whom included “composition” as part of the monikers for their paintings. Artists such as Kandinsky often numbered their artworks in this vein in an effort to rid their works of preconceptions, emphasizing the purely abstract nature of their expression. This titling and early date demonstrate Zao Wou-ki’s initial intent to establish his own voice within the abstractionist movement.

05.06.53 - Composition bistre, noire employs layers of abstract forms to create a mysterious atmosphere complex in its use of light and shade. Such utilization of mood is reminiscent of the “painter of light,” British Romantic landscapist J.M.W. Turner, who blended abstraction and realism in his mastery of watercolors. In the words of Taiwanese art critic Chu Ko, Zao “refined oil into medial ink, an achievement that is unrivaled by any Western painter. Zao’s use of color is philosophical, with a richness that could not be realized by ink.” Following its initial display at Galerie Pierre in Paris, the present lot was also featured at “The Prints of Zao Wou-ki” at the Cincinnati Art Museum in the USA in 1954. Such early exhibition along with the clear progression of innovation demonstrated by this work establishes 05.06.53 - Composition bistre, noire not only as a masterpiece of vibrant abstraction, but also rare in its significant and profound academic value.